Venezuela

Fire of Liberty

El Cadullio Huge Chavez is stirring up a lot of dust in his neighborhood with his aggressive rearmament in Venezuela. Through the massive inflow of petro-dollars Col. Chavez has gone on an estimated $5.2 billion spending spree on some 50 Mig 29's, 12 helicopter gunships, 100,000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles not to mention a fleet of navy vessels. To matters worse, Hugo Chavez and his minions have a long history with the various leftist narco terrorists like the FARQ or other dangerous terrorist/guerrilla groups threatening the democratic nations of South America. Such actions have prompted the attention of the White House as well as the Pentagon's US Southern Command, which has domain over the Central/South America and the Carribbean region. Just read what the leadership of Southern Command told The Financial Times about the situation:

General Bantz Craddock, the commander-in-chief of the US Southern Command, said Venezuela's arms-procurement plan was a worry because the motive was unclear, raising concern among its Latin American neighbours.

“We are wondering just what is the intent here,” Gen Craddock said in an interview. “If it is for sovereign defence, obviously each nation can do their own, and as well they should in terms of protecting their sovereignty and their national boundaries.”

But Gen Craddock, who is scheduled to testify before the Senate's armed forces committee tomorrow, said it was unclear if the end-user of some of the weapons, in particular the 100,000 rifles, really was Venezuela.

“If it is to export instability that is a different situation,” he said. “We are concerned about that and we would like that not to happen.”

Also, it seems that the White House and The Pentagon are getting serious about the threat of Chavez's regime to the South American continent. Based on this article, the Bush administration has decided that to contain the dictator of Venezuela. I prefer a rollback policy but this will do.