Maduro turns Venezuela military officers into businessmen to quell discontent

Worried by signs of dissatisfaction in the barracks, the Nicolás Maduro regime is trying to buy the loyalty of Venezuela's armed forces by increasing their access to loans and other benefits and giving them control of enterprises, according to internal documents and military sources. The initiative, which builds on a practice started by the late Hugo Chávez, was adopted amid a generalized mistrust between Maduro and the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (NBAF) and a wave of arrests of military officers early this year. “Maduro encourages, buys the loyalty of the generals and admirals by assigning them jobs and new [social] programs,” said Rocío San Miguel, coordinator of Control Ciudadano, a non-government organization that monitors Venezuela's military. More…