Nicolás Maduro extends the purge in the army: he expelled and degraded 23 Venezuelan soldiers

In the avalanche of defections in the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) lists are added degradations and expulsions which have been a constant during the term of Nicolás Maduro Moros. The most recent is from 23 soldiers, of which Maduro declared to want "through hostile acts, violent means and ignorance of legally constituted authorities, to change the republican form of the nation, endangering the independence, sovereignty and integrity of the territory".

In Decree 3.941, Maduro lists the expelled and degraded to have responded to a "homogeneous attitude of cowardice and unworthiness, which are configured in acts of manifest aggression against the people as the direct representative of national sovereignty, undermining the superior values ​​of our legal system and against the fundamental pillars of the armed institution, which constitute Acts of treason towards the homeland".

He indicates them by "attacking the honor and the single military burden; against the decorum of the profession; against the social precepts and the norms of morality; against the precepts of subordination, laws and dispositions dictated by the competent authorities, being aggravated such behavior to because of his status as an official ".

Decreed the loss of military rank and national decorations "without prejudice to the actions and consequences arising from the corresponding process known to the competent authorities".

And, finally, Maduro said that "the coward cannot be a military man, one who lacks dignity, pundonor, nor that of relaxed conduct, because evil can be the guardian of the freedom, honor and independence of his country, which fears sacrifice and outrages its weapons with infamous vices. "In the end he commissioned the Minister of Defense to enforce that decree.

Although the general in chief Vladimir Padrino López and most of the high military command are determined to proclaim the unity of the armed forces and acts of loyalty to Nicolás Maduro and the government of the day, the facts show that it emerges the crisis in the military institution at all levels.

Mature he degrades the first lieutenants Johan José González is Jhonn Carlos Carreño Narváez "to be unworthy of belonging to the Bolivarian national armed forces" for having violated "the values ​​and principles that represent the military institution".

On the other hand, he has been degraded and expelled with the same arguments "as an exemplary action"to 21 military, most of those who went to Cúcuta in February, recognizing Juan Guaidó as commander in chief of the armed forces and interim president: captains Jorge Enrique Páez Castañeda, Denis Neptalí Arellano Romero, Pedro Alejandro Báez and Alejandro Molina Noguera.

First lieutenants Henry Augusto Zambrano Lozano, Daniel José López Laconcha, Carlos Eduardo Jiménez Graterol, Ramón Eduardo Elías Alvarado, Franklin Alfredo Caldera Martínez, José Alejandro Montero Crespo, Juan José Espino Domínguez and Víctor Daniel Parra.

Senior Sergeant First Glandys Karina Gelvez Chacón. Senior Sergeants Yurley Andreina Arellano Prato and Adelis Pastor Rosales Peroza. Senior Sergeant of the Third Jesús Miguel Villegas Román and Eriber Santana Duque Rincones.

The first sergeants Edgar Alexánder Flórez Urbina, Luis Eduardo Cermeño and Fabiola Geraldine Zambrano Contreras. And the second sergeant Freddy Gabriel Aquiles Osorio Flores.

Captain Molina Noguera about a year ago that he had deserted from the military, after being warned that they would stop him.

Captain Páez Castañeda had been reported to have been involved in an alleged coup.

Lieutenant Carreño Narváez, who belonged to the special forces, was discharged two years ago, after applying the three-year consecutive delay in his degree. It appears among those who would have participated in an attempt at rebellion against the Monagas ZODI, a case not yet clarified, for which there are several soldiers of the battalion 322 Caribes "Cnel Francisco Carvajal" of Forte Paramaconi arrested, and of which it was only claimed that they would attempt to kidnap the governor and the head of the full defense zone.

Most of the sergeants on the list went to Cúcuta to support Guaidó, but they did so after February 23rd.

Only so far in 2019, Maduro has decreed several lists of expelled and degraded members of the armed forces, including the Major General (Ex) Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and the Major General (Ex) Carlos Alberto Rotondaro Cova.

After the events of April 30th, with Operation Freedom, degraded and expelled 55 soldiers, whose chief places division general Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, former head of the Bolivarian intelligence service (SEBIN).

The first time Maduro used that figure to degrade and expel was fu 11 soldiers involved in the so-called Windward massacre, is the only one for criminal reasons. The others are politicians: the second of 24, the third of 116, the fourth of 13 senior officers, the fifth of the events on April 30 and the sixth list is this with the 22 soldiers.

Moreover, two isolated cases in which he also applied the degradation and expulsion of the military institution, was that of the lieutenant of the aviation Ronald Alirio Dugarte Silva, who brought before the Organization of American states videos and testimonies of what happens with torture in the General direction of military counter-espionage and the case of Lieutenant Colonel Ovidio Carrasco Mosqueda, a member of the Presidential Honor Guard.

It is true that the Organic Code of Military Justice contemplates the figure of degradation and expulsion, but since it is only a penalty ancillary to the main crime that the military has committed and for which he has a final definitive sentence, which is not verified in any of the six Maduro lists.

What is very clear is that the FANB is not united, nor is it mostly loyal to Maduro, nor that prison or torture, much less the degradation and expulsion, holds back those who conspire in the institution military.