As Venezuela rips apart, so does Maduro’s military
Fugitive Venezuelan soldiers have declared a rebellion against “the murderous tyranny” of the president. Dissident officers have fled the country, seeking asylum. Grenades have been fired at the Supreme Court and, this weekend, assailants under the command of a mutinous captain attacked an army base, making off with weapons.
As Venezuela reels from a crippling economic crisis and deadly street protests, the military has often served as the guarantor of President Nicolás Maduro’s continued power over the country.
But daring challenges to his rule in recent weeks have laid bare a split within the military that could ultimately determine the nation’s fate: a growing number of officers are openly breaking ranks with the president and taking up weapons.
“They speak of resistance, now they think that the model is to use arms,” Cliver Alcalá, a retired Venezuelan general and government critic, says of those who have rebelled.
Venezuela has a history of coups and attempted overthrows at times of crisis, and many in the country now wonder if this is one of those times.
But the nation’s leaders are keenly aware of that, too, and as they face their greatest turmoil in years, they appear to have come prepared: The government has spent years ensuring that the military’s top commanders are deeply invested in the status quo.
In a single day, Maduro promoted 195 officers to the rank of general. Venezuelan generals, more than 2,000 strong, enjoy a range of privileges, from lucrative control of the food supply to favorable rates for exchanging dollars.
Eleven of the 23 state governors in Venezuela are current or retired generals, along with 11 heads of the 30 ministries, giving them an extraordinary stake in preserving the government’s control over the country.
And the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, an army general, has been granted an even more lucrative arrangement, with expanded powers to control the country’s ports, as well as parts of the oil and mining industries.
“Maduro has made sure to give many rewards to senior military officers in exchange for loyalty,” said John Polga-Hecimovich, a political scientist who studies Venezuela at the U.S. Naval Academy. “While he is completely dependent on them to stay in power, they have much to lose if he is gone.”
Maduro’s crackdown against the street protests is drawing widespread condemnation. On Tuesday, the United Nations said that the government had used excessive force against demonstrators and that security forces and pro-government armed groups had caused more than half of the 124 deaths that have accompanied this year’s protests. Eight members of security forces had been killed, the United Nations said.
Polga-Hecimovich pointed to what he called the “four P’s” — purges, promotions, politics and profit — that have kept many military leaders loyal to the government.
The purges and promotions date back to President Hugo Chávez, who picked Maduro to be his successor before he died in 2013.
Most midlevel officers are far removed from the high ranks or patronage systems on offer from the government.
On Sunday, a fugitive army captain named Juan Carlos Caguaripano released a video of himself standing before a group of armed men he declared were in “legitimate rebellion” and demanded a “transitional government and free general elections.”
Around that time, a group of 20 people launched an assault on a military base in the state of Carabobo, near the capital, Caracas, an attack the government said had been organized by the rebel captain.
Soldiers fought the group for three hours and at least half of them made away with weapons, they said.