Venezuelan Security Forces Reevaluated in the Name of Assassinated Deputy Robert Serra

Santa Elena de Uairen, October 28th, 2014. (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said yesterday that a “revolution” of the country’s police forces is being launched, after revealing that a group of police was involved in the 1 October murder of late PSUV deputy Robert Serra.

During the appointment of Admiral Carmen Melendez as the new interior justice minister, Maduro pledged to “correct all that is wrong” within police bodies and create a new “ethic of power” to break with patterns of police “using power to enrich oneself or… working in the service of economic factions.”

The South American leader noted that a number of metropolitan police (Policaracas) are linked to the assassination of Serra and partner Maria Hernandez, according to evidence unearthed in the official investigation, which is still in process.

Those police “betrayed their oath… by placing themselves in the service of paramilitary Colombian mafias to assassinate a leader of Venezuelan youth,” Maduro asserted.

The president announced the creation of three academies for the national Bolivarian police (PNB), the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Service (CICPC), Civil Protection (PC) and firefighters. The academies, which will operate out of the National Experimental University of Security (UNES), will become “the basis for a paradigmatic transformation” of those contingents.

A presidential commission has also been created to improve communication between police forces and minister Melendez, “without intermediaries.”

This morning, the chief of state reiterated the government’s intention to “delve into their innermost affairs… of the CICPC and PNB…. [and to investigate] their functions and leadership on different levels,” in a further attempt to purge corrupt activity.

At the suggestion of minister Melendez, Maduro also announced the formation of a mission to ensure the social welfare of firefighters and police. The mission will reinforce efforts to provide dignified living and work conditions, family healthcare and home ownership opportunities for these public service workers.

In a parallel incentive called the Safe Homeland Plan, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) will be given a 45 percent pay raise, starting November 1st, Maduro said.

Both initiatives may contribute directly to a decrease in low-scale corruption, as devalued salaries and poor working conditions have been cited as incentives for FANB and PNB to engage in illicit side-deals, such as asking for bribes in routine operations.