Venezuelan National Guard - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Venezuelan National Guard (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: Guardia Nacional de Venezuela), also called the Armed Forces of Cooperation (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperación), is one of the four components of the National Armed Forces

Military of Venezuela

The National Armed Forces of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela are the overall unified military forces of Venezuela. It includes over 129,150 men and women, under Article 328 of the Constitution, in 5 components of Ground, Sea and Air...

of Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. The National Guard can serve as gendarmerie

Gendarmerie

A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...

, perform civil defense

Civil defense

Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...

roles, or serve as a reserve light infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

force. The national guard was founded 4 August 1937 by the then President of the Republic, Commander-in-Chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

Eleazar López Contreras

José Eleazar López Contreras was President of Venezuela . López was a general and one of Juan Vicente Gómez's collaborators.Eleazar López was the only child of Col. Manuel Maria López and Catalina Contreras...

. The motto of the NG is "El Honor es su divisa" (Honor is its emblem), different from the motto of the Spanish Civil Guard.

Objectives

The premise of this military corps is defined in Article 329 of the National Constitution:

The Army, the Navy and Air Force have essential responsibility the planning, execution and control of the combat operations required to assure the national defense. The National Guard will cooperate in the development of these operations and will have like basic responsibility the direction of combat operations demanded for the internal maintenance of order of the country. The National Armed Forces will be able to exert the activities of administrative police and penal investigation that the law attributes to him.

Therefore, this one component fulfills the function to offer security and to defend the sovereignty of the Venezuelan national territory, as much internally as throughout its borders, working jointly with the Army, the Navy and Aviation. At the same time, it participates respectively in operative in internal security in collaboration with the state and municipal police bodies under the direction of the Ministry of the Popular Power for the Defense and the Ministry of the Popular Power of the Interior and Justice. Consequently, in case of disturbances or sackings, it acts to dissuade and to control the protests and other public disturbances.

Present situation

At the present time, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

, has arranged for the National Guard to collaborate with the citizens in activities of cooperation, protection, security, defense and also in social programs or missions to benefit the population, according to the Constitution of 1999.

Organization

Commando General de la Guardia Nacional (Headquarters, National Guard) - Caracas

Logistics Command,
Air Operations Command (Air National Guard),
Operations Command

Controls eight or more Mobile Detachments of battalion size available for deployment to any area of the country in response to threats to internal security or border security

Three regional commands which control local battalion-sized detachments which provide static defense of certain public buildings, oil installations, and penal institutions. Additionally, they patrol the nation's highway system, functioning as a federal highway police
Highway patrol
A highway patrol is either a police unit created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways, or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency that is primarily concerned with such duties.Duties of highway patrols or traffic...

force.
- San Antonio de Tachira in the western Andean Region
  Andean Region (Venezuela)
  The Andean Region is one of the 10 administrative regions in which Venezuela was divided for its development plans; the region is composed of the states of Mérida, Trujillo and Barinas; the region is located straddling the Andes Mountain Range. Except for the people of the Llanos in Eastern...
  
  ,
- Maracaibo
  Maracaibo
  Maracaibo is a city and municipality located in northwestern Venezuela off the western coast of the Lake Maracaibo. It is the second-largest city in the country after the national capital Caracas and the capital of Zulia state...
  
  , and
- Caracas
  Caracas
  Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

Recruitment

The VNG is an all volunteer force with over 25,000 men, recruits undergo a two-year basic training course at the Ramo Verde Formation School at Los Teques

Los Teques

Los Teques is the capital city of the Venezuelan state of Miranda. Its population is 140,617 .-History:The city was founded in 1777 and was named after the Aractoeques Carabs, an indigenous tribe that once inhabited the area...

. Officer candidates were required to study for an additional four years at the Officers Training Academy of the National Guard in Caracas. Postgraduate studies for officers were available at the Advanced Officers School at Caricuao

Caricuao

Caricuao is a district of Caracas, Venezuela. It is part of Libertador municipality.It is named after a powerful indigenous chief of the Caracas tribe, who fought bravely against the Spaniard Conquistadores; he and Tiuna chief were the first indigenous leaders to set up "armies" on their tribes to...

, near Caracas.

Uniforms and Equipment

The VNG wears the same ranks and uniforms as the Venezuelan Army.

The VNG is equipped as a light infantry force, with the standard FN FAL

FN FAL

The Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a self-loading, selective fire battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal . During the Cold War it was adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, with the notable exception of the United States...

assault rifle (being replaced with the AK-103

AK-103

The AK-103 is a modern, Russian-designed version of the famous AKM assault rifle, chambered for the 7.62×39mm M43 round. It combines the AKM design with developments from the AK-74 and AK-74M, with the use of plastics to replace metal or wooden components wherever possible to reduce overall weight...

), light machine-guns, and mortars up to 81mm.
It possesses over forty Unimog

Unimog

Unimog is a range of multi-purpose auto four wheel drive medium trucks produced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG. The name Unimog is pronounced in German and is an acronym for the German "UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät", Gerät being the German word for machine or device...

UR-416

Thyssen Henschel UR-416

The Thyssen Henschel UR-416 is a German armoured personnel carrier, introduced in 1969 built from the same body as the Mercedes-Benz Unimog light truck.-Development:...

wheeled armored personnel carriers.

It also employed eighty small craft for its coastal and river patrol duties.

The Air National Guard Command operates over 50 fixed-wing light aircraft and helicopters

Hymn

The lyrics were written by Gabriel Torres Thumb, whereas the music was work of Ricardo Lleras Codazzi.

- Choir -

Before God and the Fatherland we swear

with sincere and deep emotion,

that to have by slogan we took

and by high currency the honor (Bis)

- I -

Delinquents you hear! We protected

of the law the sacred empire,

the worker, the home, the state,

diverse the fecund mission

the borders, the coasts, the level ones,

mountain ranges, fields, city, small village.

Everything you, everything you, Venezuela,

you will see us against the vile malefactor.

- II -

Compatriots or not: guarantee

we will offer the good citizen,

to the disabled person, the boy, the old one,

based on social justice.

And to you, Mother country, at the times combat,

or to the heat of your civic fights,

these notes will arrive that listening

as a hymn of love and loyalty.

External links

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