People's army for Venezuela

Following the capture by Venezuelan forces of 150 Colombian 
paramilitaries who had been hired to assassinate Venezuelan 
President Hugo Chavez the government has decided to form a 
people's army to defend the unfolding revolution in that 
country.

The capture of the assassins was a reminder that US imperialism 
has not ceased to conspire to overthrow President Chavez through 
a failed recall referendum and by secret but violent means.

It is reported that the Colombian group planned to kill and 
decapitate the Venezuelan president and send his head to Cuban 
President Fidel Castro.

In a speech on May 16, Chavez announced a new phase of the 
Bolivarian Revolution. While formally declaring the revolution to 
be anti-imperialist, he made a call to the masses to be an army 
for the defence of the revolutionary process.

Stating that the revolution is "just beginning", Chavez 
encouraged the crowd to always think and reflect on the events 
that occur and put them in an historical perspective. Always ask: 
"Where are we? Why has it happened?"

Referring to the revolution's newly declared anti-imperialist 
character, he said: "And that gives it a special content, which 
forces us to think and act clearly not only in Venezuela but in 
the rest of the world", adding that "with the Constitution in our 
hands, we have to take actions ... for example, the expropriation 
of lands to put them in the hands of those who really need them".

Chavez said, "We cannot permit [ourselves] to be absorbed by a 
conservative spirit; either we are or we are not". He spelt out 
the different laws that have been enacted and should be enforced, 
like the Land Law and the Supreme Justice Tribunal Law. This last 
one will allow, after careful review, the removal from the courts 
of counter-revolutionary elements who are still part of the 
justice system and are sabotaging the Bolivarian process.

Popular army

Chavez called for the formation of a popular army to defend the 
revolution. He went on to say, "I call on all the Venezuelan 
people to incorporate themselves into the national defence, the 
territorial defence and the defence of the national sovereignty. 
I not only make a symbolic call to the people; no, as head of the 
state, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces I have already 
begun to give the orders to open the massive popular 
participation into an integrated national defence."

Retired military professionals are to be selected as part of the 
active reserve to "incorporate them into the tasks for the 
defence of the country in each district, in each ravine, in each 
island, in each field, in each university, in each factory, in 
each jungle, in each place where there is a group of patriots, 
there they must be organising themselves."

The government has already allocated about US$1 billion for the 
armed forces and the National Guard and to weed out counter-
revolutionary elements in the armed forces.

In a display of compassion and understanding of the roots of the 
problem in Colombia from where the assassins came, Chavez 
mentioned that some of the paramilitary forces were children who 
had been forced into the ranks of the paras by extreme poverty 
and lack of opportunities in their own country.

He said these children are not in a military prison like the 
adults arrested and that they will be returned to their parents. 
He added that after consultation with the National Council for 
the Defence of Children and Adolescents' Rights, it had been 
decided that these children could stay in Venezuela if they wish 
to and receive free education in an effort to save their futures.

The Bolivarian Revolution is at a crossroads, with all the 
elements, particularly the strength of the peoples' commitment to 
it, in place. However, US imperialism has plans to destroy it. As 
Chavez said recently, the revolution is very strong but not yet 
irreversible, as is the Cuban Revolution.

Venezuela, along with Cuba, is a beacon to all the dispossessed 
masses in Latin America and the Caribbean who are rising up for 
the first time in considerable unison, realising that US 
imperialism and its "free trade" will never be the answer to 
their needs and their misery.

On the contrary, it is the health care, education and development 
of employment offered by these revolutions that gives hope to the 
millions of people in deep poverty, not only in the region but 
worldwide. This is a huge threat to the bourgeoisie who will not 
let it go on voluntarily.

It is an urgent task for the people everywhere to demand: Hands 
off Venezuela!

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Acknowledgement to Workers' World News Service (Abridged)