Venezuela’s Maduro: Military Personnel Working in Public Administration will Return to Barracks

Caracas, December 14, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has revealed that members of the FANB (the Bolivarian National Armed Forces) currently working in public administration positions will be required to leave their posts and return to military lines. 

The head of state made the announcements during a Christmas greeting act with the armed forces last Saturday. 

“The time has come to strengthen the FANB. Only those who are strictly necessary will stay in the public administration, in key positions because of their work, their discipline and their capacity to obey orders.“, said Nicolás Maduro Moros.

Many active and retired military officers have traditionally occupied important roles in Venezuela’s Bolivarian administration – but many are widely associated with corruption by the revolution’s rank and file. 

The latest measure to remove military personnel from public office is related to a slew of new measures enacted by Maduro in an attempt to reinvigorate the revolution in the wake of its electoral defeat in National Assembly elections on December 6th. 

As both Venezuelan executive and head of the armed forces, Maduro also expressed the need to secure the country’s currently closed border with Colombia and “liberate this area from drug trafficking”.  

“We are going to modernize our Armed Forces, creating special forces to fight different threats and to guarantee the security of the Nation,” the President stated to assembled troops. 

Maduro went on to thank the military for their work, emphasizing that the Armed Forces represent “the central column which has sustained the country with the moral strength to guarantee the peace“.

Maduro also assured the soldiers that he would review working conditions in the barracks and push forward new social security and working rights for the members of the FANB.