CNSNews.com - Chavez’s Socialist Worker Militias Swell to 150,000 in Venezuela

CNSNews.com - Chavez’s Socialist Worker Militias Swell to 150,000 in Venezuela: "(CNSNews.com) – Venezuela’s socialist worker militias have grown to nearly 150,000 members since their formation in 2009. Organized by President Hugo Chavez in May 2009, the “workers’ militias” are intended to allow Chavez’s political party to assert control over key economic sectors.

According to a Jan. 29 report in the Venezuelan El Universal newspaper -- translated by BBC Worldwide Monitoring – the ranks of Chavez’s workers militias have swelled to around 150,000 members, most of whom work in “strategic” economic sectors, such as oil, electricity, transportation, and “basic companies.”

Orlando Castillo, with the Socialist Workers Front, a Chavez-allied group, was quoted by El Universal as saying that the purpose of the militias was to use the labor troops to “defend the people,” adding that “there need to be many more” troops."