Venezuela spending billions on defense

AP via Yahooooooooooooo! ^ | 05/31/06 | By FABIOLA SANCHEZ

[oldleft]

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela is buying helicopters, boats and military transport planes in defense deals worth about $2.7 billion, modernizing its military as tensions grow between leftist President Hugo Chavez and the United States.

Flush with oil profits but blocked from buying U.S. arms, Chavez is increasingly looking to countries like Russia and Spain as suppliers.

A cargo ship carrying 30,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles is headed to Venezuela with the first shipment of an order totaling 100,000 guns to arrive by year's end. The military is looking to buy more submarines, and Chavez is planning an even bigger deal for Russian fighter jets.

[sgtbono2002]

Following in the footsteps of Saddam Inssein. He will probably bury half of them.

[burzum]

Chavez may want Colombia but he isn't going to get it. Colombia just reelected Uribe as President, who isn't the biggest pal of Chavez. Anyways, Chavez has done alot to destabilize Colombia, but the Colombians finally seem to have their heads screwed on right and are fixing their problems. While Venezuela is languishing in a socialist pit, Colombia's economy is booming and their 50 year insurgency is dieing. If Chavez outright attacked Colombia, they would squish him like a bug since Colombia has twice the population of Venezuela and is an ally with the US.

[OKIEDOC]

I can agree with most of what you say and can hope that the rest comes true.

My in-laws are big supporters of Uribe.

[xrp]

Not to mention liberating Puerto Rico.

Nah, my dingy is protecting Puerto Rico. If it needs any backup, I'll have it call the USAF and USN.

[Recon Dad]

This would be a major error on his part. Colombia has a well armed and well tested military. We have supplied them with the best of everything and we have many advisors in country.

[eleni121]

Keep spending it Hugo. Putin knows exactly what to sell a pineapple like you.


Question is how long will the Venezuelans put up with this stubby tyrant? If they do something they had best do it now...before Venezuela becomes another land of the living dead like Cuba.

[DustyMoment]

Well, I suppose it beats spending their oil revenues on something useful.

[Recon Dad]

He better not bite off more than he can chew. Colombia has an excellent military.

[MattinNJ]

Exactly. We are already in Columbia.

[livius]

I think we're the only reason he hasn't formally invaded Colombia yet.

It's well known that FARC is now doing his bidding and that VZ provides them with safe haven and supplies. But FARC is obviously not enough to achieve his goals, probably because it is widely hated by the people of Colombia.

I don't know if he'd be dumb enough to directly attack Colombia. He has his candidate in their elections and did a lot to buy and otherwise obtain votes, but it didn't work. Personally, I think he'll try to do with Colombia what he has been trying to do with us: provoke an incident. He wants an excuse to attack and plausible deniability for his actions.

[ChadGore]

You are correct about the Columbia link.

I've always viewed Chavez as a FARC shill.

[livius]

Colombia is our big hope. Of course, Bill C. virtually sold them down the river, making them turn over a large part of their territory as a "demilitarized"(translation: FARC refuge) zone. But since Bush has been in office, he has been very supportive and I think Colombia has a chance of being a success story.

[BurbankKarl]

For their preemptive strike into their neighbors of course.

[American Vet Repairman]

"This is a military buildup, yes, but there's no defense involved."

Will he be going after Curacao or Guyana?

[Candor7]

Spend your billions. Nothing you have can stop laser directed tac air.

Tremble you little commie, there is an Arc Light in your future!

[libs_kma]

IIRC, Ozzie Guillen, coach of the White Sox is big Hugo Chavez fan-butt kisser.

[RobbyS]

Latin America keeps raising up these tin-pot Bautistas and Castros.

[RobbyS]

Of course, but that would be a mistake.

[OKIEDOC]

Hugo is banking on the FARC and the ELF to do a lot of his dirty work destabilizing the infrastructure.

Many of the Colombian officers I have met at various functions, trained in the United States.

Several years ago I met ÁLVARO URIBE VÉLEZ before he became President.

He is very impressive and is a graduate of Harvard, a former professor at Ozford, governor and mayor of a really dangerous area of Colombia.

The Republicans could use a good strong willed leader like Uribe to help unite the party... Just My Lowly Opinion.

[heights]