Russian newspaper Kommersant (via Lenta) tells us Chávez wants to get another set of 100 T-72B1V tanks. The T-72 is a slightly improved version of this thing:
I reckon they are still for the "asymmetric war" the caudillo so often talks about. Or are they not? In any case, they will be paid with part of the $4 billion credit the Chávez regime got from the Russians last October just to buy weapons made in Russia.
According to Kommersant, Venezuela's debt for the Russian arms deals amounts to some 7.2 billion dollars (2.2 billion from a credit in 2009, 4 billion from that credit of 2011 and a little more from some other times). Most of the Venezuela money for buying this stuff does not come from the defence budget but from FONDEN, the Fondo Para Desarrollo Endógeno, which is supposed to be money for sustainable development. European sycophants of Chávez still say Venezuela's defence expenditure is peanuts based on the defence budget and comparisons to - oh, what else? - the USA.
The loans are linked to Venezuela giving Russian companies preferential access to oil fields such as Carabobo 2. Rosneft' is the main beneficiary but Garprom Neft', Lukoil, Surgutneftegas and TNK-VR are also involved in Junin 6 thanks to the military caste of my country committed national resources for the Russian weapons industry. Igor' Sechin, one of Putin's closest pals and like Putin a KGB man, was the guy doing the final killing.
Meanwhile, the children attending the Francisco de Miranda school, very close to where I grew up, have classes under the skies...the school is just too small, there are three classrooms for 250 pupils.
I wonder what new wonders Chávez's sycophants abroad will write about at this stage. Will they still say that there is less illiteracy in Venezuela than in Germany as communist-turned-social-market-expert Sahra Wagenknecht says, "according to UNESCO"*? Yeah, she knows because she has been to Venezuela. And I am an expert on Swahili.
Hallo, Sahra...was sagst Du jetzt? Es ist "entweder Chávez oder Bush"? Entweder Chávez oder die Vaterlandsverräter, die Un-Venezolaner?
*Please, check out what scholar Francisco Rodríguez said about the education scam in my country.
Hallo, Sahra...was sagst Du jetzt? Es ist "entweder Chávez oder Bush"? Entweder Chávez oder die Vaterlandsverräter, die Un-Venezolaner?
*Please, check out what scholar Francisco Rodríguez said about the education scam in my country.
If Chavez wants to become a true military power, he should make his fellow countrymen manufacture these tanks, missiles and such.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, those who could be manufacturing and engineering these tanks for Venezuela to have themselves, are fighting for a space in a small school, like the one you just mentioned, and many will not even get to move on to further their education.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if all those missiles Chavez bought from the Russians were duds. The weapons incinerator station in my state destroys weapons that are as little as 7-8 years old because stronger ones have been created.
Hi, Stephanie.
DeleteIf Chávez wanted to make Venezuela a military power, he would need to make it produce its own black beans, coffee, maize, toilet paper and so on firstly. Then he would need to make it produce textiles, electronic devices, etc. And then he could think of those weapons.
Venezuela's military were producing years ago some rifles. Now they presented a new type
http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/112373/en-fotos-fusiles-venezolanos-catatumbo-fabricados-en-el-pais/
I cannot judge about its quality but I doubt it would be something better.
In any case, I have often wondered how these guys can justify these tanks when they were all the time talking about this "asymmetric war". The USA could obliterate those tanks in no time, with or withot the new Russian radar system Venezuelans also bought.
The Kalashnikovs, even old ones, make sense if Chávez is really afraid of a US invasion and he wants to do "an Iraq"
(but then we know what a coward Chávez really is, we remember 1992).
So: why is it? I reckon the Venezuelan military caste really gets excited by parading these devices and, above all, some of them probably got some financial enticement from the Russian exporters to lobby for these things.
In any case, it is a tragedy. We still have record oil prices if we consider the year as a whole and the government is already alarmed about the current level (less than 91 dollars a barrel). Just 10 years ago the average price was around 40. Veneuzela is like a cocaine addict needing ever higher doses of petrodollars.
Mad. This is a time bomb.
"If Chávez wanted to make Venezuela a military power, he would need to make it produce its own black beans, coffee, maize, toilet paper and so on firstly. Then he would need to make it produce textiles, electronic devices, etc. And then he could think of those weapons."
DeleteYes, of course I understand that. But if he were smart in the least sense, he would understand that his country needs education. He doesn't understand that the military is there to protect and serve, not to rule the people, thus what separates him from the world. I never understood why he is so afraid, seeing as the US has no interest in supposedly invading Venezuela, especially not under Obama. I watched him come out of the wood work at the UN in 2006. He seemed cocky. You know, like 10 meters tall and bulletproof.
Sadly, even as Venezuela needs more and more petrodollars, the US needs their oil. The only difference is, the US needs it so they don't have to use their own. That way, when the US becomes energy independent,(the green way, even though we have just as much if not more oil) they can toss Venezuela away like a used napkin. It is very sad to see a country not just grossly mismanage, but literally throw away their wealth, and harm millions in the process.