After Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, Venezuela has the fifth largest Armed Force in Latin America and is ranked seventh among the countries with the highest ratio of military officers per each 10,000 inhabitants, after Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

Based on the 2007 Comparative Atlas of Defense and Security in Latin America, prepared by the Network of Security and Defense of Latin America (Resdal), the Venezuelan Armed Force comprises 92,350 officers, excluding the National Guard -which is described in the study as an "administrative police corps"- and the complementary "bodies" such as the Military Reserve and the Territorial Guard.

Including the four branches of the Armed Force (Army, Aviation, Navy and National Guard) the number raises to 129,150 people. Almost half of them (49 percent) are in the Army (63,350 officers); 28.5 percent in the National Guard (36,800 people); 13.6 percent in the Navy (17,500 officers) and 8.9 percent in the Aviation (11,500 people), said Rocío San Miguel, one of the Venezuelan representatives to the network founded in 2001.

Overall, the armed forces in Latin America comprise 1,426,077 officers, with Brazil ranked first (367,906 people).

According to San Miguel, the Venezuelan Armed Force occupies "a privileged position" as the fifth largest armed force in Latin America, because the countries with larger forces have also "a population significantly larger than Venezuela's."

"One could say that the Venezuelan Armed Force is oversized because in Brazil and Colombia, for instance, the population is much larger. Additionally, you should take into account the fact that the Military Reserve and the Territorial Guard have expanded," she added.