Posted on 09/13/2009 5:21:47 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CARACAS (Reuters) Russia has agreed to lend Venezuela over $2 billion to finance the purchase of weapons including tanks and advanced anti-aircraft missiles, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.
Chavez said the purchases agreed on a trip to Moscow last week included 92 tanks and the S-300 missile system, which is capable of shooting down fighter jets and cruise missiles.
"We have to thank the Russian government, which approved a $2.2 billion loan for arms spending," Chavez said on his weekly television show. He did not say how much the new weapons cost.
A major oil exporter, Venezuela's finances have suffered this year because of lower crude prices. Chavez said Venezuela needed to borrow the money for defense spending to avoid cuts in education and health.
In recent years, Venezuela has bought over $4 billion of weapons from Russia including 24 Sukhoi fighter jets. Critics say Venezuela is fueling an arms race in Latin America, but Chavez says he is modernizing the military for defensive purposes.
Venezuela is embroiled in a diplomatic crisis with Colombia over a deal to allow U.S. troops access to more bases in the neighboring country to fight drug traffickers and left-wing guerrillas.
Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, says the Colombian bases plan could be used to launch an attack on Venezuela and increases the risk of war in South America.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
92 tanks! sounds like an invasion is planned
ya don’t drop leaflets out of fighters jets either.
Opposition mayor shot dead in western Venezuela
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090913/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_opposition_mayor_slain
CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuela’s federal police are investigating the shooting death of a mayor who was a member of the opposition to President Hugo Chavez.
Police Chief Wilmer Flores Trossel says Mayor Lluvane Alvarez was shot by unidentified assailants as he entered his home Saturday.
Then how would Venezuela be able to repay the $2.2 billion debt it has spent on Russian military hardware?
Oh, oil revenues from Citgo and PDVSA would do the trick.
Wow, that’s a relief. Now ossama obama won’t have to do it.
What will he invade?
“What will he invade?”
Columbia and Honduras for starters.
Nope...The Colombians will NOT allow it.
92 tanks
They are at it again, thusiness policies that bankrupt the failed be USSR.
Shortly after the end of the USSR, I participated in a Trade mission to Moscow. I didn’t go but my rep brought home lots of requests for all kinds of stuff. More than one wanted to pay with what amounted to Soviet bank promissory notes from customers or banks in say Iraq. The Soviet banks used these notes as collteral for loans to say a weapons manufacturer. The foreign customer or bank would not honor the note in $$$ but would pay in kind. (stuff)
The stacks keep smoking and workers work and get paid. That is happening again now with Chavez and probably Iran.They are going to relearn the hard lesson all over again when goods are given away for worthless promises to pay.
They geninuely thought the paper was good. The
You don’t understand Colombians....or their geography. ;-)
Who are they going to invade? Colombia??
Venezuela is about to see a drastic economic collapse. Where did they think socialism would take them?
Does Colombia have any tanks??
PDVSA isn’t doing as well as people think
Chavez is kind of a squirrel?!!
There aren’t many geographical plains to utilize tanks to an offensive attack into Colombia.
I would have to think it’s for his own safety against a growing domestic dissatifaction.
Depends on what exactly the weirdo is getting, but I would venture the opinon that it won’t amount to much if he is fighting anybody outside the town square in Caracas, and maybe not there, either. Tanks are good, but not so good in the cities and not so good in the jungles. If the scarfaced one plans to invade the U.S. then his 92 tanks would be a good start (if he could get them here) on the 9200 or more he would need to amount to anything more than a fart in a whirlwind. As to the big missiles, well, he obviously has missed a generation or two of development if he thinks they are going to be useful. For a dollar a day plus room and board I could tell anybody how to take them out of play from the first day. It is good, though, that the scarfaced one is spending a lot of his country’s money on useless toys. That means that when he catches the high grade bird poop in his scarred face that he so richly deserves, and a sane person replaces him, there will be a little more money in the treasury after his toy purchases are payed for to be spent on legitimate and useful expenditures, such as enormous balloons labeled “scarfaced dumbo is gone.”
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