[2] Also known as Bolivarian Army (Ejército Bolivariano, EB), its role is to be responsible for land-based operations against external or internal threats that may put the sovereignty of the nation at risk.

With the beginning of the independence movement on 19 April 1810 and the subsequent war in the country, a military academy was created in 1810 by decree of the Supreme Board of Caracas for the training of officers for the Republican cause.

Cumaná was taken shortly after by the Republicans, but the heavily fortified city of Puerto Cabello resisted under siege until 1823, during which time it served as the base for the Spanish reconquest of territories in western Venezuela.

This precarious situation ended when in 1899 Cipriano Castro took power as president and once again lays the foundations for a professional army, which his successor Juan Vicente Gómez deepens.

With the overthrow of the Pérez Jiménes and the return to democracy, the most significant actions that involved the army were the combat of the Marxist-Leninist guerrillas of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, FALN), made up of activists from the Communist Party of Venezuela and the Revolutionary Left Movement (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, MIR) that were heavily active throughout the 60's; as well as the deployment of Venezuelan troops in the ONUCA peacekeeping mission in Nicaragua.

Other missions undertaken by the army where the repression of looting of private property during the "Caracazo" protests in February 1989 and the failed coups by future president Colonel Hugo Chávez in April and November 1992.

In the 21st century, the Venezuelan Army has experienced unprecedented growth, incorporating war a big influx of material, mostly from Russia, in almost all segments of its arsenal, allowing an almost total modernization of the force.