ion or
National Guard (Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperacion or Guardia Nacional)

Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
conscript service obligation - 30 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 6,236,012 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 4,907,947 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 252,396 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$1.687 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1.5% (2004)

Transnational Issues Venezuela

Disputes - international:
claims all of the area west of the Essequibo River in Guyana,
preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary; Guyana has
expressed its intention to join Barbados in asserting claims before
UNCLOS that the Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with
Venezuela extends into their waters; dispute with Colombia over Los
Monjes islands and maritime boundary near the Gulf of Venezuela;
Colombian-organized illegal narcotics and paramilitary activities
penetrate Venezuela's shared border region resulting in several
thousand residents migrating away from the border; US, France and
the Netherlands recognize Venezuela's claim to give full effect to
Aves Island, which creates a Venezuelan EEZ/continental shelf
extending over a large portion of the Caribbean Sea; Dominica, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
protest Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation
and other states' recognition of it

Illicit drugs:
small-scale illicit producer of opium and coca for the processing
of opiates and coca derivatives; however, large quantities of
cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transit the country from Colombia
bound for US and Europe; significant narcotics-related
money-laundering activity, especially along the border with Colombia
and on Margarita Island; active eradication program primarily
targeting opium; increasing signs of drug-related activities by
Colombian insurgents on border

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

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@Vietnam

Introduction Vietnam

Background:
The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was completed
by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 188