Regional security and Venezuelan civil-military relations: Rocío San Miguel of "Control Ciudadano"
Here is a brief interview with Rocío San Miguel, coordinator of Control Ciudadano (Citizen Control), a Venezuelan non-governmental organization that focuses on defense and security issues. The conversation covers the state of defense relations in the region, and the challenges of civil-military relations in today's Venezuela.
Rocío San Miguel of Venezuela's "Control Ciudadano" from Adam Isacson on Vimeo.
This discussion took place outside the sessions of the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in November 2010. This was shortly after a top Venezuelan military official, Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, told the press that Venezuela's armed forces would not tolerate an opposition victory in the country's 2012 elections.
"Venezuela currently lacks genuine democratic controls over the operation of the armed forces," San Miguel warns.