CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Although the Venezuelan government has denied Colombia's accusations of initiating an armaments race, reports in the international media indicate that recent military material purchases by Venezuela are of such magnitude that they will unbalance the regional military balance of power. The arms purchases will be financed by some of the windfall profits derived from the recent record-high petroleum prices, which are the primarily source of foreign revenue for the Venezuelan government.
According to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, which quotes American intelligence agencies and the Russian Business Monitor, Venezuelan purchases of Russian and Chinese armaments will be top $5 billion. The two publications' roughly estimate the major weapons systems to be purchased include 40 MiG-26 helicopters, MiG aircraft and a vast array of Russian military equipment.
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and the army's commander, Gen. Raul Baduel, recently traveled to Moscow to finalize details of the transactions. Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia Carlos Mendoza reportedly said Russian President Vladimir Putin would visit Venezuela in late November.
Media reports are circulating that Venezuela may also attempt to acquire MiG-29 combat planes and light arms from the Ukraine after purchasing the Mi-26 helicopters, which could lead to military cooperation between Venezuela and Cuba, which operates those weapons systems. News of Rangel's and Baduel's trip led to harsh criticism in the Colombian Congress, where legislators denounced the incipient armaments race they said was promoted by the government of President Hugo Chavez.
In addition, the Colombian Senate's Foreign Relations Commission has requested that the United Nations investigate the alleged Venezuelan arms purchases, contending that if they occurred, they could destroy the regional balance of power and threaten peace throughout the entire hemisphere.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jesus Perez downplayed the importance of the Colombian denunciations, however, asserting that "at no time had Venezuela initiated an arms race, because the National Armed Forces (FAN) are completely within its rights to renew and to buy fighting equipment from any country in the world." Perez added that the government is trying to reinforce its borders by deploying increased forces along them, a situation that "is common knowledge and that we are in completely within our rights to do."
The helicopters would reduce the Venezuelan government's reliance on U.S. weaponry and technology. They are to be deployed along the country's western border with Colombia, whose right-wing government is a staunch ally of the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush, who has sent hundreds of military advisers to back Colombia's fight against leftist guerrillas.
Before departing for Moscow, Rangel said the helicopters would be basically used as backup for patrols along the border. Relations between Caracas and the Bush administration have deteriorated markedly over the past two years, with the Chavez government charging that Washington is trying to destabilize Venezuela. Venezuela oil currently accounts for 14 percent of U.S. imports.
Although various rumors about Venezuela's imminent purchase of Russian armaments have been circulating for a long time, the confirmation of the purchases coincided with the recent slayings of five Venezuelan soldiers and an oil specialist in Portuguesa state near the border with Colombia. The local Venezuelan police chief declared that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which operates in that zone killed them.
However, Chavez's critics contend that, far from FARC's forces threatening Venezuela, the Chavez regime is actually covertly cooperating with them. Members of the opposition, dissident military officers and the U.S. Department of Defense all charge that Chavez actually has an alliance with the Colombian guerrillas. This version of events motivated the U.S. Congress earlier this week to request the State Department to draw up a report on the relations of the armed Colombian extremists with Venezuela.
In its most recent annual report on global terrorism, the State Department claimed that Chavez "had expressed ideological solidarity" with not only FARC but another Colombian leftist guerrilla movement, Army of National Liberation, or ELN. The White House considers the two organizations and Colombia's right-wing paramilitary organization, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, as international terrorist groups, and has placed them on its list of terrorist organizations.
While both Colombia and the United States ascribe dark motives to the Venezuelan arms purchases, there is little question that FAN's armaments have been neglected. According to Latin American military analysts, FAN's current operational readiness is at its lowest level in history.
Until the recent purchases, Chavez kept a tight lid on military spending; in 2003 Venezuelan military spending was a miniscule 1.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product. In contrast, Colombia spent 3.4 percent of its GDP on its armed forces while the United States spent 3.3 percent of its GDP on defense. Many of FAN's AMX-30 tanks are unusable. The navy is in similar decline with only two operational frigates, which are plagued with radar problems, and the service's two submarines are in such poor condition that they will have to be withdrawn from service to be refitted.
Recent record-high global oil prices have benefited immensely oil-exporting countries, and Venezuela is no exception. The irony is that U.S. consumers are underwriting Venezuela's arms purchases, being purchased by the Chavez administration in no small measure because of the Bush administration's bellicose saber rattling over the last two years.
(Carlos Coello is a writer with Tiempos del Mundo)
