[Garth Tater]

"When exactly did the US sell arms to Venezuela? They've been hostile toward us for many years."

Up until 2006 the United States was the largest seller of arms to Venezuela. At that time the State Department blackballed them under the Arms Export Control Act for not "cooperating fully" with US counterterrorism efforts. They still fly F-16s and even though we can't sell them spare parts our allies do. Does that make our allies bad guys like Russia?

Wait a few years, every country down there that is now our "friend" will be our "enemy" - and if you wait a few more years they will flip back again the other way. It's what they do. They are all third world basket cases run by third world politicians just trying to survive another day. Labeling them as our enemies is counterproductive. Actually thinking that they are either our friends or our enemies is naive. Thinking that Russia is evil is what you do. They are just trying to survive in a world that is changing quickly under their and everybody else's feet. The Cold War is over. Nobody won.

[ETL]

So, we, the US (I don’t know what country you are from, or currently in), in 2006, was selling arms to the Chavez regime?

“Hugo Chávez repeatedly alleged that the US had a plan to invade Venezuela, a plan called Plan Balboa. In interview with Ted Koppel [Sept 2005], Chavez stated “I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela. Furthermore, we have documentation: how many bombers to overfly Venezuela on the day of the invasion, how many trans-Atlantic carriers, how many aircraft carriers...”[13]

“On 20 February 2005, Chávez reported that the U.S. had plans to have him assassinated; he stated that any such attempt would result in an immediate cessation of U.S.-bound Venezuelan petroleum shipments.[15]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Venezuela_relations#Presidency_of_Hugo_Ch.C3.A1vez