Venezuela promotes 16,900 soldiers for 'loyalty' Published duration 3 July 2018 Related Topics Venezuela presidential election 2018

image copyright Reuters image caption Almost 17,000 members of the armed forces have been promoted

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has promoted 16,900 soldiers as a reward for their "loyalty".

The promotion comes amid a worsening economic and political crisis during which opposition politicians have called on the armed forces to side "with the people".

Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said those promoted had been "loyal to the constitutionally elected president".

He also praised them "for respecting human rights".

According to the report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, there has been "a pattern of disproportionate and unnecessary use of force by security forces".

"The failure to hold security forces accountable for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said on 22 June.

Venezuela's foreign ministry rejected the report, calling it the "result of a highly questionable methodology that buries the credibility and technical rigour demanded of an office of this nature".

'Safeguarding peace'

Speaking at a ceremony in the capital, Caracas, Gen Padrino said those members of the armed forces who had been promoted had played a key role in securing "the institutional stability in the country and the safeguarding of Venezuelan democracy and peace".

A little over a month ago, President Maduro demanded that members of the armed forces sign a document declaring their loyalty.

image copyright Reuters image caption The armed forces wield a lot of power. They were recently deployed to check prices at markets

Speaking in front of military cadets, he said that his government had dismantled a "conspiracy financed by and orchestrated from Colombia and backed by the US government to divide the Venezuelan armed forces".

Dozens of officers, some of them high-ranking, are being held over allegations they plotted against the president, says non-governmental group Foro Penal, which provides legal help to inmates.

The Venezuelan government blames the economic crisis which has led to hyperinflation and severe shortages of food and medicines on sanctions imposed by the US.

But government critics say President Maduro and his predecessor in office, Hugo Chávez, caused the current crisis through years of mismanagement.