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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Colombia Warns That Venezuelan Military Buildup Could Destabilize Andean Region |
| 2005-04-27 |
| Colombia's defense minister, in a confidential statement to the Senate, said Venezuela's planned arms purchases appear to be unjustified and create a "military imbalance" in the Andean region. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a leftist populist, has arranged to buy 100,000 assault rifles and 10 helicopters from Russia and patrol boats and military transport planes from Spain, moves that have already drawn criticism from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe, in written responses labeled "secret" to questions by Colombian senators, criticized the purchases. A senator's office provided a copy of the responses to The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It's an undeniable fact that Venezuela's military buildup deepens the military imbalance in the Andean region," Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe wrote. "There is no clear justification at the moment to acquire certain types of these strategic arms," Uribe added. The criticisms emerged as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making a Latin America trip. Rice - who visits Colombia on Wednesday - said she will talk with hemispheric leaders about Venezuela's commitment to democracy and its relations with other nations of the region. She is not stopping over in Venezuela during her four-nation trip. Several Colombian senators have criticized the arms purchases by the government in neighboring Venezuela. "The weapons Venezuela is acquiring are offensive, not defensive," said Sen. Jimmy Chamorro. "This really worries us." Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been soured over the alleged presence of leftist Colombian rebels on Venezuelan territory. Chavez has denied his government harbors the rebels and said any guerrillas present in Colombia would be considered enemies of his government. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #9 For too long, the US has had a policy that both recognized that central and South America, for the most part, are filled with irresponsible and self-destructive imbeciles, vacillating between the dictators in power and the dictators currently out of power; and that it is not worth our while to bother with them. While the first part is not inaccurate, the second part must change. Central and South America must eventually enter our day-to-day sphere of mutual interest as part of "the Americas", otherwise they will continue their decline into something paralleling the middle east in the 1990s--a powder keg full of ambitious villains like Ghadaffi and Saddam. Already Britain has been at loggerheads with Argentina. Hopefully that will not be the trend for the other nations of the region. Picture how difficult and expensive it would be to base SOUTHCOM in a South American nation, subsequent to a US invasion. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-04-27 9:10:54 PM |
| #8 He already has, there were very interesting deals in 2002 and lots of passports issued. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2005-04-27 7:03:26 PM |
| #7 Trailing wife, I apologize. And I certainly understand that the US Armed Forces are busy right now. |
| Posted by: TMH 2005-04-27 6:45:11 PM |
| #6 I don't think that Rantburgers underestimate the possibilities, TMH, but our guys are a bit busy at the moment... ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-27 6:24:59 PM |
| #5 Aligned with Castro and maybe also Lula and a leftist prez in Mexico, he could do a lot of mischief. More than mischief. |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-27 6:13:28 PM |
| #4 thibaud (aka lex), You are so right! I still do not understand why Americans understimate the possibility of this lunatic cooperating with muslim terrorists. There is a large population of arab muslims in Venezuela, mainly palestinians...do I need to say more? |
| Posted by: TMH 2005-04-27 5:31:18 PM |
| #3 First inclination is to write off Chavez as a Castroite pest, nothing more. (Maybe Venezuela should be renamed the "Mosquito Coast.") But he's just stupid and unbalanced enough to dance with the devil. If he were to start cooperating with Al Qaeda, or even AQ wannabes, he could do a great deal of harm to us. AK-47s can do wonders in the hands of 15-20 jihadist kamikazes attacking a US school or a mall... |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-27 3:14:14 PM |
| #2 I'm sorry, but a couple gunships and a shitload of assault rifles are not my idea of particularly offensive weapons, nor are they by any stretch of the imagination "strategic". Not exactly police-issue, no, - but intrinsically offensive? Maybe if it was Costa Rica buying them. Or armor & artillery. But we're not exactly talking air superiority fighters and mechanized equipment, here. Still looks like Chavez putting together a Sturm Abteilung to discourage the Venezuelan Army from throwing another coup d'etat to me. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2005-04-27 3:06:36 PM |
| #1 Wouldn't want to destablize the Andean region, it's been such a rock of stability all these years. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-04-27 11:52:18 AM |