Venezuelan soldiers in the Military Academy esplanade before the beginning of the military parade to celebrate the 213th anniversary of the independence of Venezuela, Caracas, July 5, 2024. Photo: Presidential Press.
More than 15,000 members of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) marched in Caracas to celebrate the 213th anniversary of the independence of Venezuela on Friday, July 5.
To the chants of “Oligarchs tremble,” “The Essequibo is ours,” “Bolivarian National Armed Force, always loyal, never traitors” and “Chávez lives,” Admiral José Hernández Abchi, commander in charge of the civic-military parade to mark the 213th anniversary of independence, led the troops through the Los Próceres esplanade.
Admiral José Hernández Abchi reported that a total of “15,400 Mirandian, Bolivarian, Zamorian, revolutionaries, socialists, anti-imperialists, anti-colonialists, anti-oligarchs combatants and now more than ever fervently and profoundly Chavistas” marched to mark the occasion.
The admiral added that the FANB members are trained, equipped and educated under the “tactical method of revolutionary resistance, ready and willing to be trained by the Strategic Operational Command, throughout the national territory and the marine and air spaces of the republic.”
Russian presence
The officer further reported, “We are accompanied by 46 fighters from the Russian Federation, consolidating the strategic, humanistic, integrationist and brotherly ties between the two sister nations.”
“Make no mistake”
Admiral José Hernández Abchi said that an epic is being commemorated “under the oppression and siege of unilateral coercive measures by the most powerful empire that has ever existed in humanity and its lackeys.”
He emphasized, “Make no mistake, because by writing our own epics of independence, we are constructing our own victories, hand in hand with the legacy of our commander Hugo Chávez, with the Bolivarian ideals of Liberator Simón Bolívar, with the sacrifice of the liberators, and with the command and the direction of the leadership, the sacrifice and the victory of you, my Commander in Chief,” referring to President Nicolás Maduro.
The officer in charge of the parade added, “Make no mistake, independence or nothing.”
“The saltpeter, the dust, the weeds that impregnated the skin of our soldiers and our sailors in Carabobo and Maracaibo set the course for the freedom of the south,” the admiral said in reference to the historic battles for independence. He also addressed the people of Venezuela, urging them to “count on your soldiers of our FANB for the next battles, for peace, for development, for prosperity, for happiness, for health, and for the territorial integrity including the Essequibo and the Atlantic façade.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
