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Venezuela has received the first three of at least 10 military helicopters purchased from Russia. Military officials say the three MI-17 helicopters arrived Tuesday in Caracas. Venezuela bought the helicopters as part of a $120 million deal signed last March. Caracas also agreed last year to buy 100,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles. U.S. officials have criticized the deals, saying they could trigger an arms race, destabilizing the region. MI-17s can be used in an assault role or as a transport craft. Venezuelan military officials say the helicopters will be used to patrol the border with neighboring Colombia. The remaining helicopters...

<p>SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — After 60 years, the U.S. Navy yesterday officially closed its sprawling Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in eastern Puerto Rico — already dropping property values and flooding the surplus housing market.</p> <p>In the short term, Puerto Rico expected to suffer with closure of the base, which pumped an estimated $300 million a year into the U.S. commonwealth's economy. Long term, nearly 4 percent of the island's land area will be available for tourism, housing and industrial development.</p>

EIBA, P.R., March 31 — The people of this coastal hamlet never resented making room for the American military, unlike their neighbors on Vieques, the island where the Navy conducted bombing exercises until last year. Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, which opened here in 1943 and later supported the Vieques operations, had long pumped money into the town of 14,000 and kept it lively.So when Congress and President Bush decided last summer to close the base on March 31, much faster than the typical shutdown of a military post, many here feared the worst. That is, until they decided they might...

Official U.S. Navy file photo of multinational forces operating in the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (USNAVSO) area of responsibility. USNAVSO is the naval component to the U.S. Southern Command, and provides operational command and control to naval forces in the region and is the lead agent for cooperation and training initiatives between the U.S. and navies from Central, South America and the Caribbean. View Larger Download HiRes   U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command Relocates to FloridaStory Number: NNS040126-01Release Date: 1/26/2004 6:56:00 AMSpecial release from the U.S. Department of Defense WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy has decided to relocate...

CEIBA, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Navy ships are vanishing from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, ending an era when defense spending boosted Puerto Rico's economy and the U.S. territory was seen as a strategic asset. The military has used the base for six decades to keep watch over the Caribbean, and as the outpost closes, with thousands of troops and civilians to leave by March 31, Puerto Rico is losing an economic powerhouse that employed more than 6,000 people and brought an estimated $300 million a year to the island. Puerto Rican leaders are proposing to turn the base's airstrip into...

The Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Sept. 23 — The United States will close its Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in eastern Puerto Rico within the next six months, the territory's congressional delegate said Tuesday. Congress and President Bush are expected to sign off on the closure by the end of next week, said Anibal Acevado Vila, the U.S. territory's nonvoting congressional delegate. The Pentagon did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The base's closure comes after several years of protests against U.S. military exercises in Vieques, which ended with the Navy's May 1 withdrawal from its bombing...

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee recommended a 50 percent cut in funding for the largest military base in Puerto Rico, the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. The recommendation was made in approving the national defense policy bill for the fiscal year that begins October 1. The bill passed both Houses of the Congress late Thursday. The Committee report "strongly" supported a Navy plan to reduce operations at Roosevelt Roads, which is located on the eastern side of Puerto Rico’s main island. The plan will cut employment at the base by 65 percent and "reduce the number of military operational and...

(English-language translation) The Navy and the Department of Defense "will do all they can" to proceed with a definite closure of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Ceiba in 2005, according to sources with the Armed Services Committee of the [U.S.] House of Representatives and the Pentagon. "Without the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility operations in Vieques, Roosevelt Roads is not of much value to the Navy. The operations that remain there may be transferred to other bases and the Department of Defense would save money which it may invest in other things, such as the new training system," a...

Special release from the U.S. Department of Defense WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Department of the Navy (DoN) has transferred all real property on the eastern end of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, to the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Interior (DoI) as required under the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-398), as amended by Section 1049 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-107). Under the law, DoI is required to develop the land for use as a wildlife refuge, with the former live impact...

Three engineers who work for the Navy predicted Tuesday that the Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba will be shut down entirely. Three instrumentation engineers - Juan Lugo, Angel Ramos and Miguel Sierra - disagreed with Vieques Commissioner Juan Fernandez and Ceiba Mayor Antonio Cruz, who maintained the base will not be shut down because the Navy is investing money to restore and purchase equipment for the facility. The three who work with the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility, a Navy division whose main function is to provide Navy training, were notified that as of Sept. 30, they will no...