[MilCom] Increased Venezuelan Military Activity

[Rapbep at aol.com]

All,

Over the last three days there has been a steady increase in Venezuelan 
military. Searching Venezuelan spanish-language web sites indicates that there is a 
recall referendum (RR) scheduled for the 15th of Aug.

The Venezuelan military HF ALE activity that I've been seeing is probably 
related to government preparations for this referendum. 

The Ministry of Defense Command, Army & National Guard units that I've seen 
in ALE are the same units that usually appear in HF ALE during what I call " 
times of stress" for the Chavez government. So far I've seen :

Command Units:

Unified Command of Armed Forces (CUFAN) plus four subordinate command units, 
CUFAN1, CUFAN3 & CUFAN4
Command/Commander Military Region 7 

Army:

Regional Command Center, Military Region 1 (rarely seen)
22nd Inf Bde
222nd Motorized Inf Bn 
Reserva5 (not normally active)

National Guard:

HQs
Miraflores, Mira 1 & Mira3 (probable Special Operations Units)
PORLAMAR (Aviation Support Unit)
DESTAFAC23 (Detachment 23)

On 12 Aug the Venezuelan Navy increased their HF ALE activity, again probably 
related to the upcoming referendum.

Units noted:

HQs
DCCOP- Director of Naval Operations
Naval Base " Amario"
Naval Base "Falcon"
Naval Base "Guitierrez"
Frigate "Marical Sucre" (hasn't been active in a couple of months)
Patrol Craft " Independencia"

According to Venezuelan news items, the commander of CUFAN says he will 
deploy at least 40,000 troops throughout the country to insure stability during the 
referendum.

Those of you who can hear the Venezuelan HF ALE will undoubtedly hear more 
"traffic" during the next few days.



RON(Rapbep at aol.com)
Utility Station Monitoring
Maryland, USA