Why would Venezuela 'protect' the Panama Canal? There are ominous overtones there...
Posted on 09/24/2004 6:11:33 AM PDT by OESY
...Russian news services are reporting that both U.S. and Colombian military sources have confirmed that Venezuela's defense ministry has purchased several advanced MiG-29 fighters and that that U.S. sources have detected them on training missions.
..."Venezuela plans to spend approximately $5 billion on acquisition of Russian fighters including purchase of armament, airdrome and airborne equipment."
...UPI: "letters addressed last year to the director general of Russian Aeronautic Corp., Nicolai F. Nikitin, the Venezuelan air force requested the 'latest version' of the MiG-29 SMT equipped with high-tech weaponry, including radar-guided missiles and 2,000-pound bombs."
UPI: "The plane must have the capacity to carry no less than 4 tons of bombs." ..."Venezuelan generals have told European diplomatic officials that they need the MiGs to protect the Panama Canal. When asked against whom, the air chiefs wouldn't specify."
The story also claimed that U.S. intelligence reports say that "Venezuelan contracts are also being drawn up for Russian Mi-17 heavy-lift helicopters as well as radar systems from China." Separately, the Sept. 16 Jane's Intelligence Digest claimed that "negotiations are underway for Ukraine to supply more sensitive and strategically important military equipment to both Cuba and Venezuela."
The OAS may have stamped Mr. Chávez "legitimate" but a dark cloud of public doubt hangs over the Miraflores presidential palace and the Venezuelan people are clearly restive about the direction their president is heading.
This may explain why he cancelled his trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly this week and instead visited a spot on the Colombian border where five Venezuelan soldiers had been killed by guerrillas. It's said he was poorly received by his own men. The OAS and the Carter Center may one day be sorry that they rushed to validate the results of the recall vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The real question here is why all of a sudden does Venezuela feel the need to protect the Panama Canal? I thought China was in charge of that?
Why would Venezuela 'protect' the Panama Canal? There are ominous overtones there...
Target drones. Cheap, don't cost us anything.
MUHAHAHAHAH
still it good to sell like all socialist leaders...he gets his priorities straigth as per election promises.
1. help the poor
recommendation: MIG 29's from Russia.
anyone care to bet how long it will be before we hear...he is doing that to defend against the US immenent attack
Protecting their ally and mentor so far from home (China). Scarcely bothering anymore to conceal their intentions of taking us down.
Fortunately, we have allies within Venezuela--namely most of the populace.
Unfortunately they have been disarmed. I think Lula is working on disarming the Brazilians also. There are long range plans and strategy going on here. I wish I knew how long we have till we have to face it...
Just read this in the WSJ and was about to type the whole thing (didn't have a link) and thought I'd better check first. Excellent post. Iraq and the Middle East will pale by comparison to the problem we're going to have with Hugo Chavez. Once he gets going, the war in South America is going to be very ugly.
You need to go to the link and read ALL of this. Phenomenal problem developing in S.A.
Please read the entire article at the link and let the other immigration watchers know about this one. Major problem developing...and fast.
I'm beginning to think we're going to have to do something about the dependency on oil ---- Venezuela has a lot --- and with our open borders and easy immigration policies, any kind of enemy of the American people and our way of life can come in and get a pretty good start on what they intend to do to us --- and we remain oblivious to it all.
How many Latin American countries are supporting us in the Middle East? El Salvador --- any others? We need to change the way we're dealing with our own hemisphere --- we're over in Iraq and meanwhile back here in the Americas there are troubles brewing.
Putin's voodoo doll - November 26th, 2004 | Amid monstrous electoral turmoil in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin decided to hold a press conference today in Moscow, with none other than Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. The purpose was to, uhhh, congratulate him on recall referendum victory. And no less than four months after it happened. But don't think this is about Chavez. Putin, as you may be aware, is going head to head with the West over whether his puppet-candidate, who fraudulently claims victory in a tainted election, has the right to assume Ukraine's presidency. Ukranians blocking the freezing streets of Kyiv don't think so. So what is this really about? Last August 15, Hugo Chavez won a hugely fraudulent recall referendum victory comparable to the nightmare going on in Ukraine. However, the West didn't stick up for clean elections in Venezuela. Instead, it entrusted the matter to Jimmy Carter, who, always the dictator's friend, hastily declared it free and fair, giving Chavez the legitimacy he craves. Western media followed suit, repeating the lie with gusto.
Only Venezuela's referendum wasn't free and fair. And everyone who's watched it closely knows it. The State Department quietly scuppered its own plans to accept the results of the Carter Center report after evidence of its shoddiness (and the aghast reaction in the tropical streets of Caracas) came to light. The EU remained mysteriously silent, refusing to observe the next round of local elections.
But the Chavez fraud was never explicitly challenged by the West, and now it's coming back to bite. With Putin showcasing Chavez in Moscow, it's his explicit message to the West that fraudulent elections are tolerable, fraudulent elections are just part of geopolitical power games, and the West is stunningly hypocritical if it can accept one fraud and denounce another. More to the point, he's making the case that every big power's got a right to tolerate if not commit fraud. And it also shows that he doesn't intend to back down.
If Chavez had not won his recall referendum fraudulently, and if knowledge of this was not the West's dirty secret, there'd be no way he'd be up there on the podium with Putin right now. If the West wants any credibility at all right now in Ukraine, it needs to hold fast on the principle of free elections for Ukraine, and to begin denouncing the electoral fraud that has disfigured Venezuela. Because, like a voodoo doll, Putin's holding Chavez right in front of them.
Putin: Russia Will Develop Oil and Military Cooperation With Venezuela - 11/26/2004 - Venezuela will buy a hundred thousand Russian submachine guns, helicopters, anti-tank and air-defense weapons, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.
Russia, Venezuela sign joint declaration against U.S. supremacy - May 15, 2001 - In addition to calling for an end to the Cuba blockade, Chavez said Venezuela was ready to help Moscow obtain greater influence in the United States' back yard, adding: "We will help Russia's presence in the Caribbean region."
For his part, Chavez seemed to welcome the opportunity to liken his own authoritarian style to that of the Russian leader, with whom he said he expected to become "good friends."
"In the world at large, they characterise us in the same way," he told reporters. "They call us democrats with our own vision of democracy."
"We believe in democracy, but not the kind of democracy forced on us," Chavez said, adding: "A strategic alliance has began, a joint path."
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