Venezuela: Guerra de Nervios 3 February Update

3 February 

This tweet by a deputy of the National Assembly gives the first indication of how the humanitarian aide will be used in this struggle. 

"Thanks to the support of President Iván Duque; Venezuelan private companies in Colombia; and the Government of the USA: we announce that this weekend begins the first of three shipments of humanitarian aid to Venezuela to the collection center of Cúcuta".

Run an DuckDuckGo search "Venezuelan refugees Cucuta Columbia" and you'll find news accounts from 2017 reporting on refugee flows in this border city.

I was wondering if the US was going to conduct a provocative "reverse Cuban blockade" and instead of quarantining Venezuela, send aid shipments directly to Venezuela ports and dare the Maduro government to confiscate it or block it.

Earlier today Juan Guaido posted on his government's short term strategy:

"Attention to the Next Actions"

1. Create a national and international coalition for humanitarian aide, with three distribution centers.
2. We will mobilize to convince the FAN to permit the entry of humanitarian aid.
3. We will ask Europe to protect our activities. 

Minor detail but Guaido referred to the armed forces with the acronym FAN - Fuerzas Armas Nacionales and not by the current FANB - Fuerzas Armadas Bolivarianas Nacionales.

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This update bought to you by the Battle of the Bulge series of blog posts.  Expect new Bulge posts highlighting the action on the morning of 16 December in the 18th VG Division's sector. 

Venezuela: Ejército Nacional Bolivariano de Venezuela

The map below displays the location of Venezuelan Army brigades taken from the Venezuelan Army web page.

This page will be a work in progress as I will add more information.

For now, the struggle between the Maduro government and the opposition backed by the United States is one of propaganda and pressure. My feeling (and hope) is that this latest crisis will not be decided by a large scale invasion or prolonged unrest and the struggle is determined between a significant part of army remaining loyal to Maduro or switching to support Juan Guaido's claim to an interim presidency and a relative bloodless transfer of power.



• Most brigades consist of 3 battalions plus various specialist and support companies.
•  The numbers to the right are the brigade numbers.  
•  The 91st brigade is called armored cavalry but I give them the old cavalry designation (one diagonal line) as I believe they have a significant number of actual cavalry (i.e. horse borne) units.
•  A few brigades are designated "Caribe". They are named after the ferocious Caribe tribe and are counter-insurgent troops (more below). 
•  The Army's web page does not list the location of the Combat Engineer Brigades.

Two interesting links below.  I have yet to dive in deep but they will help me flesh out information on some of the brigades.

https://fuerza-armada-bolivariana.blogspot.com/2009/12/conversionada-la-11-brigada-de.html

https://www.aviacionargentina.net/foros/forum/defensa-en-general/ejercitos-del-mundo/6436-ej%C3%A3%C2%A9rcito-nacional-bolivariano-de-venezuela?t=6298

Updates.
Caribe explanation from a Aviacionargentina post:

"These troops were called previously, Tropas de Cazadores (Hunters), and were counter-irregular troops, but with the change of designation, to Caribes (the most ferocious of the tribes that existed in Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea, hence its name), its function was changed. Today they are still counter-irregular troops, but now they are also irregular troops, framed in the new Venezuelan Military Doctrine, of ambivalence between the Symmetric and the Asymmetrical, between the Irregular and the Regular.  There are four (04) brigades, the following: 12, 32, 92, 93, and 25 but the latter, apparently is being transformed into another brigade."