By Luis Manuel Aguana
In a recent message addressed to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Colonel (National Guard) José de Jesús Gámez Bustamante, recently released after 14 years in prison and still under house arrest, may have provided the US government with a solution regarding what to do with the Venezuelan Armed Forces, now reduced to a bare minimum after 27 years of continuous dismantling as an integrated body for the country's defense.
Using the 1999 Constitution, Colonel (National Guard) Gámez Bustamante argues the final part of Article 329, which states that "The National Armed Forces may exercise the administrative police and criminal investigation activities attributed to them by law" (see Justia Venezuela, Article 329). https://venezuela.justia.com/federales/constitucion-de-la-republica-bolivariana-de-venezuela/titulo-vii/capitulo-iii/#articulo-329). This order could very well come from whoever holds the presidency of the Republic as Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Force:
“Furthermore, and most importantly, in the same article (Article 329 CRBV), by constitutional mandate, the National Armed Forces will fulfill (may exercise) administrative police functions; that is to say, as part of internal order, through such a mandate there is no discussion, but rather compliance, not out of conviction, but by coercion of said mandate. Therefore, what I am telling you becomes axiomatic, indisputable. The military will become part of a national police force with its two doctrinal bodies: a judicial investigation body to investigate crimes and a uniformed police body to repress and prevent crime, not the population. And I express all this so as not to delay, waiting for a group of pusillanimous, opportunistic, corrupt, and malformed individuals to be called upon to expose their ignorance…” (see in Spanish, República TV, Break the Silence! Colonel Gámez Bustamante delivers a message no one expected, in https://www.youtube.com/live/r4_he42J5wE?si=dcTXtyGajt8aDwKZ).
If this comes to pass, the National Armed Force could cease to exist in its current form, leaving the way open for U.S. military forces to guard and defend Venezuela’s borders—a duty that irresponsibly dropped off our military’s list of priorities over a quarter-century ago.
Our borders were either abandoned by the regime or bartered away to Colombian paramilitary and guerrilla groups involved in trafficking narcotics, gold, and other resources extracted from areas effectively handed over to their control.
The organizational destruction of our Armed Forces is so severe that they could hardly serve as the backbone for any democratic government established in the wake of this tragedy—a tragedy defined by the wholesale institutional destruction of Venezuela.
The deplorable state of our military institution was laid bare by its inability to provide any aid to the public following the two earthquakes on June 24. This failure stemmed not only from a lack of the technical and organizational capacity to respond to a natural disaster, but also from the clear demonstration that their mission was not to protect the Venezuelan people, but rather to safeguard the regime that has plagued the country for 27 years—a stance that has sparked widespread public revulsion.
This situation forces the US, as regent and guardian of the current interim authorities, to make a difficult decision regarding what to do with an institution that has been transformed from a national defense organization into one dedicated to serving as the praetorian guard of a corrupt regime, which corrupted its top leadership to remain in power. There is NO ONE active in that institution capable of supporting any future government. It's that simple.
And this is part of the serious discussion about the future of our country.
It's not just about having a Transitional Governing Board to replace the discredited and corrupt interim government of Delcy Rodríguez; it's about who will support whatever comes next, because ultimately, the last bastion of any country's government is the bayonet of its soldiers, as the late General (Ret.) Jacobo Yepez Daza, a distinguished representative of that institution, used to remind me (see in Spanish, Jacobo Yépez Daza, Requiem for a Civilian General, in http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2015/12/jacobo-yepez-daza-requiem-por-un.html).
I write this note with great sadness in memory of General Yepez Daza and all the officers and members of our Armed Forces—representatives of an honorable officer corps that rose above politics, placing the defense of Venezuelans first in every respect. I must assume that this spirit gradually faded away, reaching a terminal crisis on June 24, 2026—paradoxically, the day commemorating the Battle of Carabobo and Army Day. Only God knows when to put an end to things.
Now, a member of that honorable officer corps—having endured fourteen years of torture so severe it cost him his sight—points to a way out: a chance to cleanse the system and, why not, start anew. But what happens in the meantime?
Venezuelans have yet to emerge from the trauma—for the Maduro regime remains in power, however much it may be under U.S. oversight—bearing the full weight of the wickedness embodied by the scoundrels who continue to misgovern the country. And I am not the only one saying this. Just ask the survivors in Vargas State, who are still engaged in the agonizing search for their loved ones beneath the rubble. The unimaginable humiliations they have endured could fill countless horror novels. People are forced to pay for heavy machinery to clear debris and find their buried families—a task that ought to be the responsibility of the STATE, which holds the fundamental obligation to protect and assist its citizens. And the immediate instrument it possesses for this purpose is the Armed Forces.
The humiliating shambles surrounding the identification and recovery of bodies in makeshift morgues, and the looming epidemic—driven by millions of insects feeding on the thousands of corpses still trapped under tons of rubble—ought to shame any government. But not these people. At this point, La Guaira should be completely fumigated from the air to prevent the surviving relatives from dying right there amidst the ruins where their families lie buried.
Given the state of helplessness and prostration in which Venezuelans find themselves, we are currently in no position to assert sovereignty. That is akin to asking a patient hospitalized with multiple wounds to move about under their own power; such a patient requires help and treatment. Venezuela was broken—much like a prisoner is physically and psychologically broken by their jailers. That is what the Maduro regime did, and what the ruling trio led by Delcy Rodríguez continues to do. I must express this in such painful terms.
Once we have cast off Delcy and her accomplices with the help of the US, and while the country remains in the "hospital," Venezuela must undergo treatment to regain the ability to stand on its own two feet. We must grasp the full, lamentable extent of this reality. This country was shattered and is in a state of COLLAPSE. It took an act of God on June 24th to make us understand the raw magnitude of this situation.
As a result of all this iniquity, the US is lending us a hand, though at a cost the full extent of which we do not yet know. Yet, we must all realize that NO ONE else had helped us in our misery. For whatever reason, the top kingpin was taken away on January 3rd, and Venezuela was rushed to a hospital under a three-phase recovery plan. That is invaluable.
We are in no position to make decisions while in this state of terminal collapse; however, as we recover from nearly thirty years of abuse, we will be better placed to improve the terms of the aid being provided. Only then will we be able to speak of sovereignty again. And when that time comes, we will be able to decide—as a sovereign nation—whether or not we require an Armed Force to defend it.
Caracas, July 26, 2026
Blog: TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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