Caracas Chronicles

The government has decided to create a brand new security agency, which will be specially dedicated to protect… only high-ranking members of the Venezuelan State.

The Special Protection and Security Unit of State Personalities (yes, that’s the name they went with) will be at first part of the Presidential Honor Guard (the army group attached to the Presidency). There’s no details over whether this unit will eventually replace the current Presidential Security Service (known here as Casa Militar).

The unit will start with 30 agents, but who knows if that will change in the future. After all, there’s a lot of Ministers and Vice-Ministers to protect in the Executive Branch alone.

It’s not like there weren’t any protection agents before: the so-called escoltas have become common presence. But they’re also turned into frequent targets of criminals in recent years, in many cases just to take their guns away.

Curiosly, this news comes after two bodyguards of Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres have been detained and will be charged for the February 12th murders of Bassil Da Costa and Juan Montoya in downtown Caracas.

Funny that for an anti-U.S. government, they like to imitate them as much as possible. And it isn’t the first time.