Did you see the photo that just appeared in the papers the other day, of the two Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" fighters that Chavez flew in his national independence-day celebrations? Or the thousands of troops he paraded carrying those brand-new AK-103's that he bought from Russia? He even got Mikhail Kalashnikov himself in town for the week, sitting in a round of discussions about starting production, under licensure, of Kalashnikov's AK's in Venezuela. I don't know whether these would be AK-103's or older models, like the AKM or the AK-74 "Krinkov" (the short-barreled, subcaliber one Osama and Abu Ayman are always parading around with).
The significance of the Su-27 is that it has the range to interdict the Caribbean approaches to the Panama Canal from Venezuelan territory, and it can cover all of Colombia.