Arias Cardenas calls on military to discharge FAN C-I-C through ballet box

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, March 31, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

In his weekly column Lt. Colonel Francisco Arias Cardenas, who has been a firm believer in the recall referendum from the start, calls on active service military officers to exercise the right to vote granted them by the Bolivarian Constitution. "Officers, NCOs and troops could dismiss their Commander-in-Chief, President Hugo Chavez Frias through the ballot box."

"The Armed Force (FAN), Arias Cardenas ponders, has plenty of reasons to vote NO.  The President has:

• made a laughing stock of the uniform
• done everything possible to prostitute discipline and order submitting the military to public scorn
• has promoted unworthy people to top positions demoralizing the organization and turning it into a praetorian guard
• has neglected maintenance and training of military apparatus, using public resources for personal and partisan use
• has weakened the FAN's operational readiness, placing it at a disadvantage when it comes to defending Venezuela against possible enemies
• has increased corruption inside and outside the FAN to blacken, divide and demoralize the institution.

The President and C-I-C has had a golden opportunity to push the country and the FAN towards modernity."

Concluding, Arias Cardenas states that the military must use their vote to discharge a commander that has neither moral stature nor capacity to lead the FAN.