CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.
"They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said during a televised address, repeating a charge he has been making for months. "Preparing is one of the best ways to neutralize it."
Both Colombia and Washington deny having any plans to attack Venezuela, but Chavez argues they are plotting together a military offensive against Venezuela. Chavez says his government is acquiring more weapons as a precaution.
"Thousands of missiles are arriving," Chavez said. The former paratrooper-turned-president did not specify what type of missiles, but said Venezuela's growing arsenal includes Russian-made Igla-1S surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Chavez, who has been feuding with Colombia for months, claims an agreement between Bogota and Washington allowing the U.S. military to increase its presence at seven Colombian military bases poses a threat to his country. Colombia says the deal is only to help it fight the war on drugs and insurgents inside its territory.
Chavez also said Monday that Russian tanks, including T-72s, will be arriving "to strengthen our armored divisions."
Venezuela has bought more than $4 billion worth of Russian arms since 2005, including 24 Sukhoi fighter jets, dozens of attack helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. In September, Russia opened a $2.2 billion line of credit for Venezuela to purchase more weapons.
33 comments:
This scares me. I have a friend that lives in Venezuela and he and his family has not been able to leave the country for a few years because of Chavez. Who knows what Chavez will do whether he suspects something of us or not. Russia should not be supplying Chavez with these weapons.
So Chavez basically told the public that he has a bunch of deadly weapons that is for a "precaution" in the "war" that he believes is coming. It doesn’t sound as much as a warning, but more of he is antagonizing Colombia. Especially is he bringing the U.S. in his speech. He believes it is a threat, although it sounds like provoking. Either way, this will probably be something that will cause trouble in the future.
I hope we are on good terms with them, because now they have all this ammo. If we tick them off I hope they discuss what to instead of just use all their new missles to bomb us. And if Venezuela decides to attack Colombia, will we help Colombia?
Chavez is a former paratrooper. He is a leader who was involved in the military, so he obviously has that aggressive streak in him. He is acquiring many nuclear weapons from Russia. Nuclear weapons in the hands of an aggressive military leader is not a positive thing for Colombia. I wonder if they will increase their count of nuclear weapons...
Woah, paranoid much?
Whether Chavez actually invades Columbia or not, who knows, but he's wasting a whole ton of money by accumulating a crap-ton of missiles just to make himself feel better. He's like a disaster waiting to happen. He's backing his entire country into a corner - if he does invade Columbia, Venezuela's going to get juked on, plain & simple, kind of like how 'Bama's going to juke on Texas. Then there will be another death blow to the Venezuelan population, & everybody will hate him even more than they do now.
How lame.
America is constantly involved in other country's affairs. It's interesting how America is full of so many problems, but we are constantly trying to help the other countries out.
No no no this is wrong, Chavez is doing something more than just taking "precautions" here. To me this seems like an excuse to be preparing with missiles and supplies from Russia. He has to be planning something more to where war is imminent because it doesn't matter, Chavez is still going to bring in war supplies even though Columbia and Washington already said they haven't made any plans. War on drugs is the U.S.'s middle name! And Venezuela President Chavez, is being this ambitious leader that has its possibility in becoming even a terrorist and i wouldn't be suprised if thats what becomes of this. Again though, preparing with billions of dollars on being apparently paranoid just doesn't seem plausible. I would watch this guy!
Okay well the last thing that the United Stated needs is to get into another war. America already spends billions of dollars on war efforts each year, and we are in a recession, so the combination would throw us back even further. And with Chavez vs Colombia its sounds like he is kind of crazed. But honestly i don't know much about the situation, so he might have reasonable belief that Colombia is preparing for war. Which considering the fact, compared to other countries, they are poor. So it seems unlikely.
No matter, how you slice it, things aren't looking very good. Either the US is there to stop drug trafficking and Chavez is a paranoid lunatic, or the US is about to find itself in another conflict. Then again, the US, with their support in Columbia, is going to find itself in the crossfire if the situation escalades quickly. This just seems to me like a conflict that has generated out of thin air; if the US really is there to fight drugs, then it has all been one huge misunderstanding.
Very funny, Venezuela received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket lauchers as part of his government's military,ha, if U.S. wants to declare the war against them, i dont think thousands of missiles and rockets will make a big change, and currently U.S does not have any offcial said intention of delcaring war against Venezuela, and we have conflicts with them all the time , but war does not solve anything , force will kill people, destroy the city , capture the territory but can not change people's feeling. The best way to solve the problem i guess is to put down the weapons and have a peacful talk.
this article is very worrying, for two reasons. not only is chavez, who has in the past been very anti-american, stockpiling weapons, but russia is supplying columbia. what will the US do? honestly, its anybody's guess.
I believe Mr. Chavez playing a most dangerous game here. He is obviously crying wolf for no reason so he can have a way to stockpile various armaments like they are going out of style. Maybe he could shell out some of that money to help improve the standard of living for his (grudging and poor) constituents...
I think its horrible that when we get a new president that decides to send more troops into a war that were already in that another country is concerned that we are going to go into war with them. America does not have the money or support for another war and I'm sure we weren't planning on the attacks being claimed by this country. I just hope Obama is smart enough to discuss this issue out.
Obama has yet another big decision on his hands. I hope that with all of this trouble he can still work it through with out causing another war. Because of breaking his promise and sending more troops in, many Americans will not support him in another war. And the fact that another country thinks we want to go to war with them is bad enough. I hope no actions are made.
Chavez needs to chill out! I'm glad we are stregenthing our forces in Colombia though because they need help if Chavez starts a missile war with them.
Chavez seems to be power hungry; nabbing up every weapon he can get his hands on. How can he possibly feel so threatened by Colombia to need that much weaponry? He's just hurting the population of Venezuela.
I think that Chavez is being a little too overcautious. Just because Venezuela and Columbia don't get along very well doesn't mean that it will escalate to war. And preparing is not a way of neutralizing, it's a way of instigating. Instead of augmenting the country's weapons arsenal, Chavez should seek better diplomatic relations with Columbia.
So Chavez is kind of crazy. It can't be good that he's stocking up on really dangerous weapons. The US can't afford another war at the moment anyway. We've still got Afghanistan and Iraq to worry about and we don't have enough troops anyway. Some serious compromises need to be made soon. It's also worrying that Russia has all the weapons lying around.
Chavez is a paranoid freak. He needs to stop threatening the Colombians and the U.S. He should send over peaceful diplomats to handle the process. Colombia even said that the U.S was just there to help them out internally, not to back them up militarily. We already have our own military problems. And the Russians, man they just want to see some atomic war break out and makes some money off it.
Well if Chavez is already paranoid over nothing then imagine if Columbia does do anything to try and prepare themselves (just in case) then Chavez will probably start a war. U.S. should really stay out of this if possible.
I think the best way to solve this is to hire someone to assassinate Chavez. You think I'm joking? I'm not. Let's solve this problem before it escalates, please. It's one life for possible thousands of lives and America's all about that policy. Unless the government wants a South American Hitler on it's hands, they need to just get over there and kill the guy. I promise the Venezuelan people won't mind. They haven't been able to get out of their country in years. I think they need a good, responsible leader. Not one that feels the need to buy a bunch of weapons from sweet, innocent Russia, whose intentions, I'm sure, are perfectly reasonable. Oh, wait..
Hugo Chavez is a disgrace to Venezuela.Because of him I haven't been able to visit for six years (and probably won't visit until he is out of office).He is making wild accusations and loading up on unnecessary weapons. Perhaps he's just trying to appear as a threat.. Regardless, I really hope the US doesn't tick him off.
This guy is completely insane! There is nothing worse than a trigger happy president ready to destroy a nation. If the Colombians say they have no intentions of attacking then Chavez has no reason to feel threatened. In reality, Colombia should really be worried about Chavez's plans on attacking seeing how he's spent billions of dollars on weaponry due to his own paranoia.
It is almost as if Chavez is being paranoid and childlike. I understand being prepared but to announce they have missles seems more provoking towards war, unless war is what he wants. However, I do not think U.S. should be involved in this.
WOW!!! Chavez doing numbers! We all know the man muy loco, but gee if dude bomb we might have to strike back. It's not like we don't have the capabilities.
Chaves is a wierdo. hes the kind of person that needs so many weapons in order to feel powerful,protected, and respected. This thing is kinda scary. If the US or any other country gets to this guy, it may be big trouble. so, russia is supplying these weapons to chaves...just like the US is supplying weapons to israel. and look how many people are dead and how many problems occured because of it... Its retarded...we already saw they used their weapons...whos to say chaves wont? blegh. weapons.
The United States does not need to be involved in this conflict because we have other issues that we need to concentrate on. Another war would cause a great deal of debt. Though it is good to help others out, getting involved will make issues for us.
Chavez seems like a pretty scary guy. I would hate to be in either Colombia or Venezuela during this time. Chavez is pretty much bypassing any diplomatic steps to resolve potential conflict and instead assumes war. But I'm not really surprised since he is a "former paratrooper-turned-president."
Haha dude this is intese. Chavez is "preparing" for a war with a country that has twice as many problems and is only focusing on drug issues. This is wack. $4 billion dollars worth of stuff to protect itself, thats over the top. It just sounds like a mad man with too many guns, thats scary.
Chavez wants to have alot of power.
hes the kind of person that has to have many weapons. he is crazyyyyyy!
Russia should stop giving them missiles because there is nothing stopping them from using it against them. they might say they aren't but who can keep that promise. What if he decides to use them against us.
Chavez is a total nutjob, the best way to deal with a guy like him is ignore him. I feel sorry for the people of Venezuela, they elected him in 1998 and now he won't be letting go of the presidency any time soon since he has eliminated term limits. He's not there yet, but Chavez is trying to emulate Fidel Castro and create a socialist Venezuela. I hope they can get rid of him soon.
Hugo Chavez has always been a threat but now we take him seriously. It took a final threat to finally open our eyes. We should have done something already because this is not the first time he has posed a threat. He is a militaristic leader and he is not joking when he says that he will attack. Im anxious to see not only when we interfere with this dilemma but also on whose side will the US be on. Chavez has talked so much stuff about the US and yet we have done nothing so far except slap his hand with media coverage (which i bet he wanted). I wonder why the US puts up with Chavez. It couldnt be because he owns oil... hmmm.... We cant let a tyrant like Chavez get away with things like this just because he owns oil. We must not stand down to such threats just because we are afraid. We cannot be pushed around!
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