Venezuela Begins Election of 264,000 Local Committees for National Defense

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Popular assemblies convened by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) have begun electing members for the Bolivarian Comprehensive Base Committees (CBBI) in more than 264,000 streets across Venezuela. The process that started on Saturday, November 8, is scheduled to finish on November 16.

In a video on social media, President Nicolás Maduro highlighted the importance of this new collective structure, which will replace street leaders within the ruling party and has a national defense responsibility amid unprecedented US military threats.

“I propose that we take a leap and that those 264,000 streets of the country immediately form the CBBI, a collective, team structure, of no less than nine members who take the oath, the commitment to develop Bolivarian values, the direction, the leadership and the preparation for the integral defense of the homeland and for the exercise of power,” the president wrote.

The Venezuelan president explained that each CBBI will have leadership but will function as a team with a permanent work agenda and action plan. He said that their priorities will include education, comprehensive preparation for defense, and organizing revolutionary, Bolivarian and socialist families at the grassroots level in their territory.

“We are referring to about 2.5 million men and women at the grassroots level, working, organizing, and leading our people in the depths of our national identity,” he said earlier this week during the plenary session of the 5th PSUV Congress.

During the same event, President Maduro sent a message to the entire PSUV structure: “I send an embrace of gratitude to all the street leaders of the UBCH community and to all the work teams who are the reason for our existence and are a pillar of peace and a guarantee of combat in the territory.”

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According to PSUV General Secretary Diosdado Cabello, each CBBI will be made up of nine members elected directly by their community’s residents. A regulation approved by the PSUV congress states that only citizens from each street can participate, “without outside interference” from public officials, party members or anyone else outside the community, as reported on Con el Mazo Dando.

The assemblies to elect the members will be held on November 8, 9, 15 and 16.

States such as Apure, Aragua, Cojedes, Guarico, Lara, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Carabobo, Sucre, and Barinas participated massively in the process, as seen from images shared on social media by the PSUV.