From Venezuela, the Nicolás Maduro regime would have undertaken a strategy of provocation against the government of Iván Duque, considered a foreign enemy of the Bolivarian revolution.
By Maibort Petit
The Bolivarian revolution is the ideological motivation of a socialist revolution determined to transform Venezuela and challenge the global liberal order has brought about the use of all available means of the oil-state.
Venezuelan President Chavez knew early on that he could not win a war with conventional weapons nor with technology against the United States. So he started an asymmetrical war with the Great American nation. The astute warrior will tailor his campaign to the adversary’s political-economic vulnerabilities and to his psychological perceptions. Real military leaders think that this is not a fair. Which is unfortunate, as the United States has not been very successful at winning this new twenty first century war.
Although there are compelling reasons for the Colombian people to raise their voice of protest due to the serious socioeconomic crisis they face and that has been increased by the Covid pandemic, such legitimate discontent would have been used as a breeding ground by the national and foreign adversaries of the New Granada administration in its objective of weakening democracy and the rule of law in the region.
Such warnings are expressed by Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), who in his latest report called "Asymmetric Assault on Colombia", who warns that the middle and poor Colombian class is used as a tool of asymmetric warfare waged from Venezuela.
The expert in global security issues, specialized in the analysis of transregional threats in the Western Hemisphere, warns that it is a threat that Colombia cannot solve alone, but requires a more comprehensive effort and the participation of democratic forces in the entire region to understand that just as it went to Colombia, so does the rest of Latin America.
Humire refers that the protests began on April 28 before the announcement of the implementation of a tax reform by President Duque, but despite the fact that the project was withdrawn four days later, the protests intensified and resulted in violent clashes between the Colombian police forces, civil protesters and others.
As of May 13, there were 34 deaths, including at least one police officer, and more than 1,500 injured, more than half of whom were police officers injured by blunt objects (blade, explosive, firearm, etc.), according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. from Colombia. As well as more than 600 arrests for arson, vandalism, robbery and destruction of banks, shops, vehicles, ATMs, cultural monuments and public infrastructure in Colombia.
The report points out that "human rights groups and organizations have denounced repeated abuses and excessive use of force by the Colombian police against protesters, including the use of tanks with multiple launchers of non-lethal projectiles, specifically in the city of Cali." . But it also highlights the statements of the Colombian Defense Minister, Diego Molano, who reported on May 3 that at least six criminal groups were behind the acts of vandalism and violence in, subverting the protests that would otherwise be peaceful. The military head mentioned, among others, the dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-D), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Blue and Black Shields of the M-19 youth movement. Then, on May 8,
Humire warns that already in November 2019, September 2020, during similar protests, groups of young militants were identified who subverted these protests and were dedicated to escalating violence and vandalism.
The report recalls that, at that time, Diosdado Cabello warned that the Colombian protests were like a "Bolivarian breeze" that flows from Venezuela and that again, on April 7, 2021, before the current protests, Cabello to veiled threats against Colombia in his television program “Con el Mazo Dando”, when he stated that "we are going to wage war in their territory" in response to the possible perceived aggression against the Venezuelan regime.
The Venezuelan strategy
Categorically, Joseph Humire states in his report: "This asymmetric war has already reached Colombia."
He maintains that the government of Iván Duque has had to deal with the provocation launched from Venezuela by the Nicolás Maduro regime since August 2018 when he began his term, but warns Colombia is not a recent target for the Bolivarian revolution.
He explains that addressing Colombia is a main objective of Venezuela's national security strategy since the dawn of that Bolivarian revolution and, in this sense, he undertook a strategy that depends on the application of an asymmetric war against those he considers his foreign adversaries.
So, the report goes back to November 2004, when the late President Hugo Chávez, through a document called "The New Strategic Map", gave orders to the National Armed Forces (FAN) to develop a new doctrine defense for contemporary conflict. A short time later, in April 2005, during the First Fourth Generation Military Forum and Asymmetric Warfare in Caracas, Chávez said: “I call on everyone to begin an (...) effort to understand the ideas, concepts and doctrine of asymmetric warfare ”.
Joseph Humire requires that, although in 2007 the attempt to legitimize the transformation of the armed forces through a constitutional referendum failed, in September 2008, it did so through an executive decree that converted the army from a conventional structure on dominance capabilities. from defense to an asymmetric structure focused on the control of the territory. "The new Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) of Venezuela would be made up of five regional combat commands, called 'REDI', integrated with civilian militias and other non-state armed actors distributed in twenty-four integrated defense zones, known as 'ZODI'".
Under this new approach of the Venezuelan army that understands the protection of state sovereignty as territorial expansion, between 2013 and 2015, Nicolás Maduro dedicated himself to expanding this asymmetric integrated defense structure to eight regions (REDI), 28 zones (ZODI) and 99 areas (ADI), becoming the new “mapper-in-chief” of Venezuela.
The report states that the military are integrated with Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO) in Colombia and elsewhere.