By: Dan Miller
It seems that neither the civilian assistance corps nor the stability police force has much to do with President Obama’s campaign promise of a civilian national security force comparable to the military. Perhaps the threat promise was just another campaign flourish, like transparency and bipartisanship. It may simply wither on the vine and die.
Nevertheless, there is an interesting and possibly relevant situation in Venezuela, from where President Obama and his colleagues seem to get some of their unhealthiest ideas (see Honduras). According to this article:
President Chavez’s socialist worker militias have grown to nearly 150,000 members since their formation in 2009. Organized by President Hugo Chávez in May 2009, the “workers’ militias” are intended to allow Chávez’s political party to assert control over key economic sectors.
According to a Jan. 29 report in the Venezuelan El Universal newspaper … [most of] Chávez’s workers militias work in “strategic” economic sectors, such as oil, electricity, transportation, and “basic companies.”