Washington wary of Chavez's military deals

[NNN0LHI]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-03-30T182120Z_01_N29178635_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-MILITARY.xml&archived=False

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Strengthening his military with helicopters, planes and rifles, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has Washington fretting over regional stability, but defense analysts dismiss U.S. concerns about a possible arms build-up.

The U.S. government, which portrays Chavez as a oil-wealthy tyrant bent on undermining democracy, is locked in a simmering dispute with the left-wing former soldier and has moved to block arms sales it believes will inflate his 80,000-strong military beyond its requirements.

But defense analysts say Venezuela needs to modernize its army and they doubt the hardware opposed by Washington has the offensive capability to tip the balance of power when Colombia, Brazil and Chile are more potent forces in the region.

"If any other country in Latin America were acquiring these weapons, the U.S. wouldn't say boo," said Tom Baranauskas, a defense analyst at U.S. consultancy Forecast International. "Because it's Venezuela, it has got caught up in politics."

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Maybe this is worrying them too.

Chavez better watch out for that aircraft carrier battle group steaming his way. I guess it will take a bit more muscle to shut him up than it took to shutup CNN and Charlie Sheen.

Venezuelan Government To Launch International 9/11 Investigation
Truth crusaders Walter and Rodriguez to appear on Hugo Chavez's weekly TV broadcast

Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly and will soon meet with Venezuelan President himself Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11.

Rodriguez was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the WTC, and was responsible for all stairwells within the tower. Rodriguez represented family members of 9/11 victims and testified to the 9/11 Commission that bombs were in the north tower but his statements were completely omitted from the official record.

SNIP

The US government attempted to sabotage the trip by putting Rodriguez, who has been decorated at the White House itself, and Walter on a no fly list.

Rodriguez (pictured above) and Walter are educating top Venezuelan officials on the evidence that 9/11 was a self-inflicted wound carried out by the military-industrial complex. They have also appeared on every Venezuelan television and radio station both private and state owned and have given huge presentations to major universities.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/310306launchinvestigation.htm

[cantstandbush]

2. Seems to me that all the evidence suggests that Chavez is right

to start some kind of military build up for self-defense. He would be "IRRESPONSIBLE" to do otherwise. After all, there have been two unsuccessful coup attempts against him funded in large part by the US. We have threatened and smeared him and he can see that we have already invaded one sovereign nation unprovoked. The US, which has threatened him, is now an occupying military force in Iraq. All the evidence suggests that by the standards established by the US and their great partner in international law-breaking, Israel, Chavez is only doing what comes naturally.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. The irony, the irony

The Bush gang goes into histrionics and hand wringing fits over other countries' plans to buy some helicopters and light machines guns while they have no compunction in ensuring the US defense war budget equals all of the rest of the world's defense spending combined.


US defence budget will equal ROW combined "within 12 months"
04 May 2005

By Guy Anderson Editor of Jane's Defence Industry

Defence expenditure in the US will equal that of the rest of the world combined within 12 months, making it "increasingly pressing" for European contractors to develop a "closer association" with the US, corporate finance group PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.

Its report - 'The Defence Industry in the 21st Century' by PwC's global aerospace and defence leader Richard Hooke - adds that "the US is in the driving seat", raising the prospect of a future scenario in which it could "dominate the supply of the world's arms completely".

The US defence budget reached US$417.4 billion in 2003 - 46 per cent of the global total.

http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdi/jdi050504_1_n.shtml

[Vidar]

3. Oh no, he can't foil another US coup attempt, can he?

[JohnyCanuck]

5. You can bet they will pull out all the stops to get him.

Doesn't look too good for another "Castro" figure to be left unmolested to thumb his nose at Uncle Sam and, once again, right from Uncle Sam's own back yard and especially when the nose thumber controls lots and lots of that oh so very addictive, lovely, black, gooey stuff that causes economic engines to grind to a halt if it gets too scarce or the price gets too high.

Also, it's definitely not a good example for the rest of Latin America. They might get the crazy idea that joining in with the PNACer's Pax Americana and American hegemony plans is a voluntary option for them, and they can take it or leave it. That certainly won't do.

[Vidar]

7. Castro's kept the bastards at bay. Hoping Chavez does as well.

[Bridget Burke]

6. And Chavez is now a bogey-man in the Mexican elections....

MEXICO CITY – A campaign commercial likening Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is threatening to worsen already chilly relations between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Mexican President Vicente Fox said through a spokesman that “the electoral process is only Mexicans' business.”

No country can intervene in the election,” spokesman Ruben Aguilar said, responding to Chavez's complaints that images of him were being used to attack Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who leads public opinion polls ahead of the July 2 presidential election.

The Mexican right is using television spots ... to try and stop the rise of the Mexican left and of its presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,” Chavez said earlier this week.

www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060322-0937-mexico-venezuela.html

Lopez Obrador has slipped a few points, but still has a good chance. Unless there's a replay of the 1988 election, when the "Leftist" candidate was victim of the most obvious election theft in the Hemisphere. Until 2000, that is.