The Seeds of Violence Planted by Chavez

For more than 10 years, Mr. Chavez sponsored parallel military organizations that did not answer to any regular chain of command – just to him. It is assumed that some of them respond to Mr. Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, but others do not. According to the non-partisan International Crisis Group, at least 100,000 militia members were armed and sworn to defend the revolution during that decade.