National Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Nacionales or FAN) includes
Ground Forces or Army (Fuerzas Terrestres or Ejercito), Naval Forces
(Fuerzas Navales or Armada - including marines and Coast Guard), Air
Force (Fuerzas Aereas or Aviacion), Armed Forces of Cooperation or
National Guard (Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperacion or Guardia Nacional)

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

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 6,886,775 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 4,953,803 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 250,730 (2004 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$1,125.6 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1.3% (2003)

Transnational Issues Venezuela

Disputes - international:
claims all of the area west of the Essequibo River, 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; maritime boundary dispute with Colombia in the
Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea; 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 10 February, 2005

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@Vietnam

Introduction Vietnam

Background:
The conquest of Vietnam by Fr