The General Command of the National Militia is divided in three branches of its own plus a fourth branch divided into the first two: • The National Reserve Service, consisting of all Venezuelan citizens who are not in active military service, or have completed national military service, or who voluntarily join the reserve units (all active reserve units are not part of the NM but of the service branches of the NAF) • The Territorial Guard Component, consisting of all Venezuelan citizens who voluntarily serve to organize local resistance to any external threat to the nation. These are divided into the Special Resistance Combatant Corps, aimed at the wartime and peacetime defense of public institutions and state and private enterprises, and the Workers' Territorial Militia Components divided into: • General Employment Militia Detachments, the mobile quick action component stationed in all the states of Venezuela, metropolitan areas and cities • Territorial Employment Militia Battalions, stationed strategically in key cities and townships in Venezuela and areas of key importance • Community Militia Detachments, stationed in all townships and cities in all the states of Venezuela, mandated to keep the public order and defend government institutions and economical assets like factories • Rural Employment Militia Battalions, stationed in all public farmlands • The People's Navy Branch, raised in 2013, which is the
naval militia component that is mandated towards the defense of the Venezuelan coastline and territorial waters, itself divided into the Naval Reserve Command (part of the NRS) and the Workers' Naval Employment Territorial Militia Battalions, part of the TGC • The People's National Defense Corps, raised in 2018, which serves as the operational reserve of the National Armed Forces in protecting public order and security 's death. Today the General Command of the National Militia is organized on the basis of nine Reserve brigades, present throughout the national territory, dozen Special Resistance Corps (grouped around workers contingents of state and private sector enterprises and national institutions at all levels) plus the territorial national service militia commands mentioned, and even a newly created national guards brigade, and in the future, armor and aviation units. It is an autonomous and auxiliary force for the Armed Forces' service branches, with its own chain of command and service arms, reporting directly to the President, the Minister of Defense and the Operational Strategic Command. It can be estimated at the present time about 400,000 men and women are on various training levels. The target of its authorities is to reach 1,100,000 part-time servicemen and women in the coming years. Today more than 160,000 men and women serve actively in the militia, with plans to have a half-a-million-strong active force of reserve national servicemen and women in 2015. Following the
2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis and its subsequent protests, President Maduro announced the expansion of the militia to include 500,000 personnel, stating that the government would purchase a new rifle for each militiaman, with plans to increase its personnel numbers to about over a million active service personnel plus an undetermined number of reserves. In December 2018, Maduro claimed that the militia grew by 1.6 million members. He said during a speech that he would extensively arm the militia. ==Controversy==