Saturday, 25 July 2009

Hugo is buying toys again


Here we have it again: the Venezuelan government wants to "at least double the number of tanks in its military and continue strengthening its defense capability".

Hugo Chávez has some French tanks and also several dozen Russian AMX-13C light tanks like the one you see on the left.

Now he wants to buy, among other things, tanks like the ones you see below, pretty big battle tanks T-90.


In the last couple of years Venezuela has given over 4.4 billion dollars to Russia for getting AMX-13C tanks, over one hundred thousand Kalashnikovs, some Sukhoi jets and some other toys.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan schools are a disaster, hospitals are a shambles, the health centres in the slums are being abandoned and Venezuelans stopped producing patents.



Who is benefiting from this? For sure some Russian tycoons...but it is certain that some Boliburgueses too are getting some Russian money for "supporting" the operation.

What could these tanks be used for? Where? Most of Venezuela's borders with Colombia are jungle.

6 comments:

  1. zamuro26 July 2009 at 12:36

    "What could these tanks be used for? Where? Most of Venezuela's borders with Colombia are jungle."

    fortunately, venezuelan towns have lots of avenues providing lots of space for tanks.

    we already have "contratados" guarding the western borders...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kepler26 July 2009 at 13:07

    I also thought about that. I wonder if journalists in Venezuela could now ask that question to the head of the Venezuelan army and still "feel safe".

    Chavistas also bought several submarines some time ago. I have often asked myself: what are they for? In that case they are obviously not for use against the opposition or somemthing. They would be neutralized very easily by the US Army (or Colombia) if there were a conflict between these parties (which I doubt).
    In this latter case, I think it has to do with commissions. In the case of the tanks, it may be like you said...but I am sure there will be some rojo-rojitos also getting a nice commission.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous27 July 2009 at 07:37

    You write here "over one hundred Kalashnikovs" ok, 100000 is over 100 ;-) but..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kepler27 July 2009 at 08:03

    Thanks for pointing that out, I corrected it and added an URL in English.

    ReplyDelete
  5. acastillo19 March 2010 at 17:31

    The Venezuelans are just replacing tanks from the 70s with tanks created in the 90s, and they do have heavier tanks like the AMX-30, which just like the AMX-13, are produced in France.

    ReplyDelete
  6. acastillo19 March 2010 at 17:33

    Oh, and just for the record, Chavez is nuts, but that doesn't the Army isn't doing the right thing here.

    ReplyDelete

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