Dissenting military officers say they've been pushed aside in Venezuela under Chavez

Hundreds of Venezuelan military officers are no longer assigned duties and have been relegated to their homes, quietly pushed aside for their dissent under President Hugo Chavez, according to former military commanders and a watchdog group. They say the officers have been sidelined for objecting to Chavez's socialist ideology, his push to form civilian militias and his ambiguous stance toward Colombia's leftist rebels. Dissident army Gen. Angel Vivas Perdomo says he sought to defend the military's apolitical tradition when he asked the Supreme Court to toss out Chavez's order for troops to salute with the motto: 'fatherland, socialism or death — we will triumph.' 'It's a motto from Fidel in Cuba that, on top of being unconstitutional, is absolutely undemocratic,' Vivas Perdomo told The Associated Press in his first interview since challenging the motto in court in May.
He said the motto, previously used by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 'takes away the right of every Venezuelan citizen to think differently and to disagree with socialism.'