Country Snapshot

Population: 24,654,694 (July 2003 est.) Size, comparable to U.S.: slightly more than twice the size of California Per Capita GDP, not adjusted for PPP (year): $3,800 (2000) Income, wealthiest 10% / poorest 10%:  53.2/.8 (1998) Population earning less than $2 a day: 32% Ranking, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index: 100 out of 133 Defense Expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 1.5% (2001) Size of armed forces: 82,000 (2001) U.S. military personnel present: 26 (2003)

“As the leading supplier of foreign oil to the U.S.,” the Venezuela section of the State Department's 2000 Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations begins, “Venezuela is strategically important to the United States."¹ As a result, military cooperation with Venezuela is close and frequent.

The many changes that newly-elected President Hugo Chavez has brought to Venezuela, however, include a shakeup of the high command that brought a shift in U.S.-Venezuelan military cooperation. "In terms of military leadership, the Chavez broom has swept clean. We must rebuild our military-to-military relationships with the new team from the top down," said Gen. Charles Wilhelm, the commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom).²

Arms Sales

Venezuela is one of the United States’ largest arms customers in Latin America, consistently among the top regional destinations for purchases through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) programs. In 1998, Venezuela received export licenses for the possible future purchase of defense-related equipment valued at $187,346,453. This figure included $110 million for helicopters and $26 million for pistols and revolvers.³ Venezuela made comparatively fewer military purchases through the FMS program in 1998, with $30.8 million, focused chiefly on aircraft and spare parts.⁴

Venezuela is eligible in 2000 to receive Excess Defense Articles (EDA). Though Venezuela buys more weapons than some of its larger neighbors, the Congressional Presentation maintains that EDA will "stretch (Venezuela's) scarce military procurement funds to maintain a modest defense capability, and further promote interoperability."⁵ Venezuela received two point-class patrol boats valued at $150,000 through EDA in 1998.⁶

Training and Exercises

The United States’ counternarcotics interest in Venezuela is very high, given the country’s geographic location bordering Colombia and its status as a major transshipment route for drugs headed north. Ten Special Forces teams visited Venezuela in 1998 to provide counter-drug training to 803 military personnel. Each of these deployments is described in U.S. documents as "in support of [the] National Security Strategy to reduce [the] flow of drugs to the U.S."⁷ Training was provided to several military units, including the National Guard Counterdrug Forces, the Rural Commandos, the Naval Special Forces and the Cazadores, and took place in Tucupita, Barquisimeto, Maturín, Maracao, San Cristobal, Maracay, Machiques, Caracas, Guri, Guayabo, and La Morracolla.

During the same year, two Special Forces Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) deployments trained 195 military personnel. One JCET, which trained with 144 Venezuelan Air Force personnel, is described as practicing “foreign internal defense/unconventional warfare,” among other skills. The other JCET, which trained with the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, focused on marksmanship and close-quarters battle skills.⁸

Venezuelans were trained through other funding categories as well. About ninety students’ training was funded through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, and 163 more were funded through other sources, mostly counternarcotics programs. Combining all programs yields a total of at least 1,250 Venezuelan security personnel trained by the United States in 1998.⁹

Venezuela also participates in several of Southcom’s regular multilateral military exercises in the region, including United Counterdrug, Unitas, Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarian and Fuerzas Unidas Peacekeeping. The Chávez government's "Bolívar 2000" program, which uses military personnel to carry out construction and medical services, appears quite similar to Southcom's regular Humanitarian and Civic Assistance (HCA) exercises, though these U.S. activities in fact rarely occur in relatively well-off Venezuela. 

Counternarcotics

Several U.S. police and military entities work with Venezuela on counternarcotics matters. The State Department’s International Narcotics Control (INC) program spent about $600,000 on efforts in Venezuela in 1998, of which $205,000 directly benefited the country’s security forces. The program’s 2000 Congressional Presentation describes upcoming plans for its Interdiction Project.

[The project] will provide assistance for Venezuelan police agencies, including the National Guard sector of the Venezuelan military, to strengthen their capability to interdict illicit drug shipments, and prevent the diversion of precursor/essential chemicals.… The project will assist Venezuela in enhancing control on the border and establish a mobile road interdiction program to operate at key choke points.¹⁰

According to the same document, the INC Crop Eradication Project will continue providing technical assistance to military operations against opium poppy cultivation in the Serranía de Perijá region near Colombia. This technical assistance includes aerial reconnaissance and herbicide spraying.¹¹

According to the State Department’s February 1999 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), a 1994 “hot pursuit agreement” with Venezuela allows U.S. personnel "to track suspect aircraft flying known narcotics routes to the Caribbean. In 1998, Venezuela gave clearance to 30 USG [U.S. government] aircraft conducting hot pursuits of suspect aircraft."¹²

However, in the spring of 1999 President Chavez announced that Venezuela would not allow U.S. aircraft to use Venezuelan airspace for counter-drug missions.¹³ This proved a significant obstacle for Southcom, which had just completed arrangements to place “Forward Operating Locations” (FOLs) for U.S. counternarcotics drug surveillance planes just off the Venezuelan coast in Aruba and Curaçao. As Venezuela sits between these islands and the Andean drug-producing region, flights from Aruba and Curaçao have had to make lengthy trips around Venezuela to reach their destinations.

Venezuela participates in Coast Guard operations with the United States. In 1998, these included “Op Venus” and “Op Snowbird.” Op Venus, conducted bilaterally with Venezuela, was a two-phase operation, consisting of combined dockside boarding and a professional exchange component. Op Snowbird, a Caribbean regional operation, also included a professional exchange component and technical assistance.¹⁴

Sources:

¹ United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington: February 1999): 933.

² United States, Department of Defense, Statement by General Charles E. Wilhelm, United States Marine Corps Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, March 4, 1999, p. 32.

³ United States, Department of State, U.S. Arms Exports: Direct Commercial Sales Authorizations for Fiscal Year 98 (Washington: July 1999): 123.

⁴ United States, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, FY 1998, Defense Articles (Including Excess) and Services (Including Training) Furnished Foreign Countries and International Organizations Under the Foreign Military Sales Provisions of the Arms Export Control Act, Chapter 2 (Washington: July, 1999): 182.

⁵ Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 933.

⁶ United States, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Excess Defense Articles Authorized Foreign Countries Under the Provision of Section 516 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, As Amended (Washington: July 1999).

⁷ United States, Department of State, Department of Defense, Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 Annex (Washington: 1999): 7.

⁸ Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 Annex 37-38.

⁹ Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 (Washington: 1999).

¹⁰ United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: March 1999): 51-52 <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/fy2000_budget/latin_america.html>.

¹¹ Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation 52.

¹² United States, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 1998 (Washington: February 1999) <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1998_narc_report/major/Venezuela.html>.

¹³ United States, "Statement of General Charles E. Wilhelm, United States Marine Corps, Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, Narcotics and Terrorism," June 22, 1999: 18.

¹⁴ International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 1998.