Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela

The National Guard traces its roots to the gendarmerie and rural police formations organized in 1811 by the National Government and in the subsequent National Police Guard raised in 1841 by President José Antonio Páez, both later disbanded. Founding In 1934, the Defense Minister General in Chief Eleazar López Contreras, busy with the preparations for his own presidency and in his duty of creating and expanding the national army and navy, realized the long need of public security in a time of civil unrest under President Juan Vicente Gómez, in their meetings during that year. In the middle of the year, he had conversations with Venezuelan diplomat Rufino Blanco Fombona, who suggested forming a national gendarmerie modeled on the successes of the Spanish Civil Guard and on the Peruvian Civil Guard, as well as the various other police forces in South America. Thus the idea of forming the National Guard was born. On August 31, 1934, the Ministry of War and Navy Resolution no. 188 created the Technical Services School, located in Fort Paez, Maracay. The school trained technical service personnel in military technologies and public security. Its Special Classes course arrived the next year. Upon the death of General Gomez on December 17, 1935, Lopez Contreas became president. The next year, as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, he ordered the raising of a National Frontier Police to protect the national borders and raised mounted security units to protect the peace in the Venezuelan plains. In that same year, a Spanish military mission arrived to help form and train a fully national police force, led by Captain Cecillo Suarez of the Civil Guard. The Technical Services School's Special Classes, by that year, moved to Caracas, became independent and on September 16, 1935, was disbanded. The next day a Presidential decree ordered the formation of the Public Security Agents Formation School. It opened in Villa Zolia, Caracas on October 28 the same year, with Captain Suarez as its principal guest. His speech implied the basic principles of the future national police force: As "sentinels of the people", a part of the armed forces as a public order and security service, maintaining the law and order, defending social lives and to become the "armed shoulder of the Executive Power" and as an intervening force in times of disorder. On August 4, 1937, the National Guard was raised via a Presidential Decree of President Eleazar López Contreras, published in the Official Gazette. The presidential decree divided the National Guard into the National Guard of the Interior (subdivided into the Highway, Rural, Health, and Urban Services) and the Frontier National Guard, and set its joint command structure under the Ministries of War and Navy and of the Interior and Justice, absorbing into the new service the personnel of the National Frontier Police. As a national police force, it was mandated to have its own investigations service. As a result, the PSAFS became first the National Police Academy and later the National Public Security Academy. On its first graduation on October 12, 1937, Sgt. Martin Torres gave an emotional address to his fellow graduates and to the honorary guests, thanking the Government and the Spanish military mission for forming the new service. The Mission organized the new service until 1941 and thus completed the Charter of the National Guard (based on the Charter of the Civil Guard), with its motto, "Honor is Its Emblem" (based on the Spanish Civil Guard motto). The first National Guard station opened in Tachira on December 6 the same year. In 1938, Congress passed the National Security Service Law. On November 8, Major Francisco de Paula Angarita Arvelo, Venezuelan Army, was appointed the first Commanding General of the National Guard, thus the National Guard became an independent arm of the Army. In 1940 the first officer training course was commenced. The service was hit hard by a 1941 reduction but debuted, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, the Military and Police Intelligence Training courses, in 1944. In the same year, via General Orders 16 on April 13 that same year, its joint command structure and duties were amended and the service was formed into a brigade-sized formation. Fourth Republic of Venezuela In 1945, the service defended the government of President Isaias Medina Angarita against a coup. In the aftermath, now Lieutenant Torres assumed the leadership of the National Guard becoming the first National Guard officer to become the commanding general, and the service adopted the green uniforms of the Venezuelan Army, abandoning its earlier blue uniforms. Several of the officers of the service had earlier served in the Army before, and in the earlier days, the officer corps was made up of Army officers seconded into the service. In 1946, it became the Armed Forces of Cooperation. The National Guard Academy and the National Guardsmen Formation School were both created that year. The National Guard held its first officers' graduation in 1947 at its Villa Zolia campus. A Chilean military mission led by the Carabineros de Chile helped reorganize the National Guard in the same year. Partly as a result it later expanded its responsibilities in the 1950s to include penitentiary protection and security, maritime security, forestry protection, and highway patrol duties as well as security in the tourism sector and even in dog handling. Its present formation of 12 regional commands dates from 1950 when the 1st Regional Command was raised. In the late 1970s, the Guard established its own air arm. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Following the Bolivarian Revolution, the Venezuelan National Guard was renamed the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela (GNB). Since then, the GNB have cooperated with paramilitaries known as colectivos within the country. == Organization ==