As a Canadian, this was my first trip to Venezuela. I just returned about a week ago. Coming from a country like Canada, the role of the military in Venezuela is absolutely astonishing. In Latin American countries or countries in Africa or anywhere else in the developing world, the military is a very scary thing that's used to repress people.
I was at a rally to celebrate the bicentennial of Venezuelan independence on April 19, a rally that attracted over half a million people. Part of the display was a military procession, and the most astonishing thing happened after the rally when all the soldiers got out of their tanks, got out of the planes, and started mingling with the people, talking and hugging the people. I, as a foreigner, obviously a foreigner in Venezuela, was able to speak to two, three, four different soldiers about what they think about the revolution, what they think about the processes going on in Venezuela. This was astonishing, talking to ordinary soldiers about the political conditions in their country, and they were talking very freely. They were bringing the children onto the tanks. There was absolutely no fear. It's a sense that the army and the people are one.
To answer your question, Mr. Marston, the army has a very interesting role in Venezuela: it is felt that it is an army of the people; that it is made up of the people; that there's no disconnect between the masses of Venezuela and the armed forces. The military certainly provides aid, especially in the barrios in Venezuela, and there's been a new development whereby the army is even providing arms training and military training to ordinary workers. I talked to one worker who's the president of the valve factory about how every person is being encouraged to take part in the revolutionary process, to be able to defend themselves in the event of an invasion of Colombia. As the fellow speakers have said, this is a very real threat.