Topic: 2024-Private Military Contractors
Country: Venezuela
Delegate Name: Marcos Calderon
Before private military contractors were discovered, there were mercenaries for hire. PMCs have always been convenient for many reasons, the biggest being that countries don’t have to take any blame for controversial tasks. Another convenience is that they’re very cost-efficient because they’re cheaper than a full military force and don’t require a long-term commitment.
Venezuela over the past years has been noticed using Russia’s PMC group, Wagner, during protests in 2019. In 2020, Venezuela used Silverwater USA to help dispose of Maduro. Before Russia in 2019, Venezuela wasn’t seen using any PMCs. Venezuela is known to have many in-country issues with the election results and the sanctions against Maduro have created more tension, especially between the US and Venezuela. Venezuela believes that there should not be any harsh imposes on any policies with the PMCs due to needing help at times with protests but there should be imposes on what happens when a PMC is used against the president of a country.
In 2020, people in Venezuela miserably tried to throw Maduro out of office by hiring a PMC from the US to help with a raid. When we hired Wagner in 2019, it was to protect Maduro from the protests that were increasing throughout the country. It wasn’t to throw off our own president. Although Venezuela usually is very limited in its usage of PMCs, we believe that we as a country should decide how we wish to utilize and restrict PMCs. We are aware PMCs can be seen as a misuse of power in conflict zones and believe the best solution to this problem is that resolutions are created.
Venezuela believes that PMCs are here to help countries who desperately need it such as when protests get out of hand for only the military to control it. That being said, countries should be allowed to personally deal with a PMC that helps people go against their own country. We believe people should face the consequences of their actions and that we are allowed to include PMCs to show that lesson.
Work Cited
Sanderson, Ethan “Covert Private Military Operations In Venezuela” https://greydynamics.com/covert-private-military-operations-in-venezuela/
“Venezuela-Related Sanctions” https://www.state.gov/venezuela-related-sanctions/
