Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during the end-of-year message to the army in Caracas on Sunday, December 28, 2025. Photo: Venezuelan Presidential Press.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro led the message of greeting to the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) on Sunday, reaffirming the liberating and emancipatory character of Venezuela’s armed force, which remain in perfect popular-military unity to safeguard tranquility and peace.
“Our military has a glorious history as emancipatory soldiers, liberators of this land,” he said, while celebrating the 200th anniversary of the creation of the Venezuelan Army’s military academy, which was established even before the continent’s emancipatory struggles began.
“Our military is not imperialist; they do not go out to bomb and kill people and steal riches. They are liberators of this land and of all America,” he reaffirmed regarding a FANB that remains “up to the level of the comprehensive defense that Venezuela needs.”
He reiterated that the perfect popular and military unity—demonstrated once again in 2025—allows this year to be called one of an “admirable challenge” that was overcome, in a clear historical reference to the Admirable Campaign, a glorious military action in Venezuela’s wars of independence. In that sense, he affirmed that the FANB is proving to be a “united liberating army of the 21st century,” loyal to its history but full of a bright future.
President Maduro celebrated that thanks to this perfect popular and military unity, the people of Venezuela live in peace and tranquility, despite US imperialist threats that have fallen on the country in recent months.
The FANB commander recalled that Venezuela has been under attack by Goliath for 27 weeks, and in those 27 weeks it has not wasted time, but has been “deployed with intelligence, wisdom, and strategic patience” to face any aggression.
Maduro said that the actions of the FANB must be carried out under “the concept we have of the war of the whole people, learned from Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Ezequiel Zamora, Guaicaipuro, and the liberators of America.”
He requested the high military command to train the people in this military doctrine. “Although it is a military doctrine of the highest strategic and academic level, it is a military doctrine for the people, because they, along with the armed forces, bear the responsibility for keeping this country as it is: peaceful, free, and independent,” he said.
He also called on the FANB to do more to guarantee “a prolonged, active, and lethal popular resistance” in the case of foreign military aggression. Maduro noted that the Venezuelan people are ready to unite and defend the homeland under any circumstances.
“They must do more; they must do more within the framework of the Constitution, the laws, the territorial defense system, and the framework of preparing for a prolonged, active, and lethal popular resistance. Within the framework of the permanent offensive and the initiative in all fields … and the entire concept we have of people’s war learned from Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Ezequiel Zamora, Guaicaipuro, and the liberators of America,” he added.
President Maduro proposed to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino the possibility of opening a year of basic studies at the Military Academy and then having candidates go on to the different academies of the various military components to achieve this goal.
Economic growth
President Maduro, also on Sunday, mentioned on social media the economic growth report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In the document, Venezuela is highlighted as one of the engines of regional economic growth.
In a video, the head of state explained that the international organization estimates growth of over 6%. However, the Venezuelan leader projected that the real increase in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2025 will be close to 9%.
The president highlighted that Venezuela is the only country in the region where retail activity has grown by 34% in 2025, driven by national productive forces and the domestic market. “It is the Venezuelan productive forces that have prospered to satisfy the needs of a people who celebrate Christmas,” the president said.
He noted that Venezuela has strategic food reserves sufficient for four months. He described this situation as unprecedented, as the products are of domestic origin. “We have never before had reserves based on our own production,” he concluded.
(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/JB
