On Tuesday, July 27, the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, headed the ceremony for the transfer of command of the highest military commanders of the South American country, appointing some new military chiefs and ratifying other uniformed leaders in their positions.
“I have ratified in their command a set of officers, and I have made respective changes that were necessary,” declared Maduro during the military ceremony while assuring that the Bolivarian National Armed Force has a “powerful patriotic morale”.
He assured that every year, when it is up to him to decide among his military chiefs to appoint them at the head of the headquarters, it becomes “a complex and difficult task, due to the quality and quantity of officers, moral, free and patriotic that our armed force has”.
Maduro handed to Admiral Aníbal José Brito Hernández the Navy’s standard, which confers him the command over the aforementioned maritime component. Likewise, the president gave the command of the Military Aviation to Major General Santiago Infante.
Major General Javier Marcano Tábata was ratified in the Capital Region, and Major General José Antonio Murga Baptista will command the Central Region.
In the Los Llanos region, Major General Sidney Lázaro Partidas was appointed as the new chief, while in the Eastern region, Major General Winder Henrique González Urdaneta will command. In Los Andes, the new commander of the Integral Defense Region will be Manuel Castillo Rengifo.
In addition, Major General Alfredo Parra Yarza was ratified in the Guayana integral defense region, while Admiral Neil Villamizar Sánchez will lead the Insular Maritime Region.
In the Venezuelan Western Region, the military chief will be Major General Reiner Enrique Urbáez, while Major General Hernán García Perozo will be in charge of the Aerospace Defense Command.
After announcing the appointments, Maduro instructed all command structures to “integrate more and more, to have a thousand eyes and ears” to guarantee an effective defense of the South American nation.
With information from Xinhua