Yes. Since 1898.
To answer the broader question, this is getting out of hand, this Chavez deal. We cannot continue to write him off as a buffoon.
When you buy Citgo fuel or some of his “reduced price” Citgo home heating oil - THIS IS WHAT YOU SUPPORT!!
TAKE THAT BLACK SLUDGE AND SELL IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! WE DON’T WANT IT!
sort of is more correct.
since July 25 1950 Puerto Rico is what is known as a "free associated state" which means that the door is open for them to be independent anytime they wish - Puerto Ricans pay no Federal Income Tax (they fill out the same forms but the bucks stay in PR). They cannot vote in US elections, but they are US citizens and have honorably and ably served in the US Armed Forces since 1898.
Somehow I find it difficult to see the Venezuelan Navy as a great threat.
What are they going to do, shell San Juan?
If they do, the US Navy will destroy them in about an hour.
The Mouse that Roared....
Chavez loves the Jackal - he often refers to him in his speeches, he visited the Jackal in prison soon after his first "election" and he believes the Jackal is a political prisoner and a true revolutionary.
That being said, if he thinks he can seize Martinique, the French will had him his head like the UK treated the Argentine junta in the Falklands.
Martinique is considered by the French and the French government not to be a colony or an overseas possession, but a part of France proper, like Lyons or Strasbourg.
Only an unknowing moron would think that.
“Chavez is heading to Russia in the next few days, to discuss the purchase of five kilo-class submarines, and possibly four more advanced amur-class subs. There are questions as to how he would be able to finance them as well as how obtain the advanced training to bring them online...”
The Russians will sell military hardware to any old slag these days...
Well, you know how to sink a Russian submarine, don’t you?
Put it in water.
I don’t know who’s crazier, Ahmednutjob or Hugo Chavez. Has anyone paged Nicolas Sarkozy to the white courtesy phone yet?
The problem is nut jobs with a martyr complex. They can cause all kinds of mischief...
Hardly. If Hugo starts any crap that ocean will have several new artifical reefs courtesy of US Navy.
L
So he buys subs, where does he get the bubbleheads to run it?
Let’s get real, here. Venezuela has no real submariner tradition, they have no trained crews, no infrastructure to handle the beasts, and no where to get parts except from overseas.
It won’t be long before these shiny new submarines resemble Iran’s F-14’s.
They’re right. The USN has other issues right now and can’t spend all its time interdicting Venezuela’s sub fleet. But, if his subs launch a torpedo or missile at friendly ship or drop a mine near a friendly port, we will find out about it and then it is all over for his subs, him and for Venezuela.
Meanwhile it costs a substantial sum of money to keep the his sub fleet maintained, and even more to keep it at sea. The only plus for him is that keeping his subs at sea works up his crews.
Like it or not Chavez and Venezuela have a right to purchase or build such weaponry as they deem necessary for their own defense. If I were Hugo, I'd be working more building infrastructure and promoting industry, so I could build it at home rather than in the USSR, er, Russia. But that's me.
Culturally part of Latin America.
BTW: Good article.