Western Hemisphere
This year, the traditional military parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Carabobo Battle and the Venezuelan Army Day introduced a foreign contingent which was the first to pass through the main avenue of the historical site behind the banners of the army commands.

A total of 126 officers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC); the Honduras Military Academy; Colonel Gualberto Villarroel Military College of the Bolivian Army; Nicaragua's General José Dolores Estrada Military Academy, and of the five member states of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our America (ALBA), took part in the parade on Wednesday, July 24th, across the Carabobo Battlefield.

The representation of the small Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was the first one to show up in the avenue.

The delegations were cheered by students of the Armed Forces National Experimental University (Unefa). In red and blue, and led by a "superior" holding a megaphone, they waved tufts and formed a human wave on the stands throughout the promenade.

All the foreign militaries carried the flags of their countries and messages regarding the regional bloc. Before the beginning of the ceremony, Chief of Staff Luis Reyes Reyes said that the parade was of an integrationist nature, not just a military display, but evidence of the integration with the "ALBA fellow member states."

Under article 187, number 11, of the 1999 Constitution, the National Assembly (AN) should authorize the entry into Venezuela of any foreign military mission. However, no information was released from the Parliament as to any related authorization.

At midday, Major General Clíver Alcalá Cordones, the commander of the 41st Armored Force of Valencia, the capital city of central Carabobo state, asked Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez for his authorization to start the march. This time, less than half of the troops participated, compared with 12,500 officers last year.

Marianela Rodríguez
SPECIAL ARTICLE FOR EL UNIVERSAL