Venezuela to host Russia navy exercise

[senseamp]

Originally posted by: Atreus21

Originally posted by: 1prophet
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26587236/">Venezuela to host Russia navy exercise
Joint maneuvers in Caribbean likely to increase tensions with Washington</a>

Venezuela to host Russia navy exercise
Joint maneuvers in Caribbean likely to increase tensions with Washington
Reuters
updated 6:20 a.m. ET, Sun., Sept. 7, 2008
CARACAS - Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday.

Quoting Venezuela's naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters from November 10 to 14.

Plans for the naval operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Moscow and the United States over the recent war in Georgia and plans for a U.S. missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Cammarata said it would be the first time Russia's navy carried out such exercises in Latin America. He said the Venezuelan air force would also take part.

Chavez: Russian planes welcome
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, has said in recent weeks that Russian ships and planes are welcome to visit the South American country.

"If the Russian long-distance planes that fly around the world need to land at some Venezuelan landing strip, they are welcome, we have no problems," he said on his weekly television show last week.

Chavez, who buys billions of dollars of weapons from Russia, has criticized this year's reactivation of the U.S. Navy's Fourth Fleet, which will patrol Latin America for the first time in over 50 years.

The socialist Chavez says he fears the United States will invade oil-rich Venezuela and he supports Russia's growing geopolitical presence as a counterbalance to U.S. power.


Chavez has bought fighter jets and submarines from Russia to retool Venezuela's aging weapons and says he is also interested in a<<< missile defense system.

I see a new Cuban missile crisis on the horizon and the Russians using this as leverage against the US missile defense system in Czech Republic and Poland.

The Venezuelan Air Force?

I didn't know Sopwith Camels still saw service.

More like Su30MKV Camels.

 

[K1052]

*yawn*

Chavez is just upset events in the world have pushed him out of the spotlight once again. The US has no military interest in Venezuela. Hugo is busy running his oil production into the ground by driving out foreign investment/development and is going to run out of cash for all his pet projects, at which point his government will probably fall.

Russia is more than welcome to sell this moron whatever they wish to accelerate that process.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: Perknose
He's a demagogue faux-populist who has chosen to spend Venezuela's oil money bonanza on an international political path the coffers of his small country cannot long support.

Meanwhile, domestic problems he could have addressed with these funds are piling up.

I firmly believe his chickens will eventually come home to roost.

Things were sure better for the vast majority of Venezuelans on the lower end economically before Chavez, eh?

Yes.
Before, they were able to find bread, milk, and beef on the shelf.
Now, they can't because of Chavez's price controls.

Inflation is also running rampant.
If Hugo Chavez gave a village worker a 5% salary increase, how exactly is he better off if the price of goods pushed consumer prices up 33.7% thanks to his price controls?
Is that village peasant really better off than he was a year ago?