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Chavez is buying guns …

Posted by Joshua Holland at 8:44 AM on May 31, 2006.


Oh my!
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Check out this complete non-story by the Associated Press:

Venezuela spending billions on defense
Venezuela is buying helicopters, boats and military transport planes in defense deals worth about $2.7 billion, modernizing its military as tensions grow between leftist President Hugo Chavez and the United States.
Flush with oil profits but blocked from buying U.S. arms, Chavez is increasingly looking to countries like Russia and Spain as suppliers.
A cargo ship carrying 30,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles is headed to Venezuela with the first shipment of an order totaling 100,000 guns to arrive by year's end. The military is looking to buy more submarines, and Chavez is planning an even bigger deal for Russian fighter jets.
Venezuela's defense budget is up 31 percent this year, to $2 billion, and that doesn't include roughly $2.2 billion it plans to spend for 10 transport planes and eight patrol boats on what will be Spain's largest-ever defense deal.
Got that? Venezuela is spending billions -- not millions, not hundreds of thousands -- on its military, newsworthy according to the AP.

For perspective, let's forget the U.S. and its half trillion-dollar "defense" budget, and just look around the neighborhood, shall we?

Argentina: $4.3 billion
Mexico:$6.1 billion
Colombia:$3.3 billion
Brazil:$9.4 billion
Chile$3.9 billion

What have we learned? That all the big countries of Latin America are "spending billions on defense." But I guess a headline like, "Venezuela spending half as much as its neighbors on defense" just doesn't advance the preferred storyline.

Later, the story quotes Mark Stoker of the International Institute for Strategic Studies saying: "My interpretation is that Venezuela had a certain amount of aging military equipment and needed to replace some of that." That alone should have tipped off an editor to the fact that this isn't a story at all.

Some AP readers are going to come away from the story with the disquieting feeling that Venezuela's going through a major military build-up, and I guess that's the point.

Digg!

Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer.


Return to Joshua Holland  » Post Tools: email EMAIL print PRINT 39 COMMENTS PERMALINK
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It's Called Propaganda!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: FedUp on May 31, 2006 9:15 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Joshua, the propaganda machine of such countries as the US have taken a page from the Josef Goerbbels office of information dissemination. It's called a smear campaign. Get the people off on a tangent and keep them off the scent of more pressing issues.
If a right-wing president had won the Venezuelan election, the US would be its biggest arm provider, even at the cost of social services to its citizens.
The US citizenry can think of the arms purchases as a "gift" on their behalf - funded by their oil avarice.
Sorry; but this isn't news.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

you old conspiracy theorist, you!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cry0fan on May 31, 2006 9:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So you are saying there is a conspiracy to justify future actions against Venezuela? Why would anyone wanna do dat?
Hmm...mebbe because a spread of political leftism in South America might cut the megacorps off from profits?

Gosh. I am sure THIS sort of thing has NEVER happened in the past!

Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me!

This mean, Holland, that I can bring up YOUR conspiracy theory here anytime you shout me down with "Conspiracy Theory!". Right?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: you old conspiracy theorist, you! Posted by: Joshua Holland
» RE: you old conspiracy theorist, you! Posted by: Joshua Holland
» so true Posted by: decembrist
» pap Posted by: brasilaron
The Bottom Line
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ZPaul on May 31, 2006 9:53 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Frankly, I don´t share the same taste in clothes with Mr. Chavez. Red shirts and berets are just not my cup of tea. I also get the impression at times that the man is rather long-winded, even though I share with him an intense dislike for a number of Bush´s international policies. But the fact that he´s not a "Yes-man" for the Bush Administration´s policies cannot obscure the fact that he is a democratically elected leader. And I think the bottom line is that if you believe in democracy, let the people of Venezuela decide what they want to do with their country -- and their resources. Certainly, every country has a right to provide for its defense -- doesn´t that sound familiar?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: The Bottom Line Posted by: Joshua Holland
» RE: The Bottom Line Posted by: MyLeftFoot
» RE: The Bottom Line Posted by: tclaverdure
What no one has been able to tell me is...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on May 31, 2006 10:15 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... why the media says a single word about Hugo Chavez. When was the last time you heard about any other South American leader????

And amazingly... when you threaten another nation... they tend to cast their thoughts to defending themselves against your aggressions. Even if this does represent an increase in Venezuela's military forces, it is not surprising or illogical. Just look at what we did to Guatemala.

By the same token... just look at what we did in Iran when we reinstalled the Shah. And gee... why would a nation want to get nuclear weapons when threatened once again by a nation that already destroyed its government once.

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This is the same as virtually all the articles about Chavez
[Report this comment]
Posted by: redjenny on May 31, 2006 10:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Because character assassination is more effective than real assassination.

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Nuts
[Report this comment]
Posted by: famouspipeliner on May 31, 2006 11:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Even a blind squirrel will find a few nuts.

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Within His Rights
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Wacre on May 31, 2006 12:30 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Isn't it his right, as the elected leader of his nation, to provide for it's defense? I would be shocked (as would any other sane person) if he did otherwise. I suspect that this is so scary for those neo-con types in government and elsewhere because it shows that President Chavez is serious about finding Alternatives to United States economic and military reliance.

And with the oil wealth of Venezuela, he might actually be able to pull it off. This is the stuff, I'd imagine, that gives people in the American foreign policy hives.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Didn't you hear??? Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: Didn't you hear??? Posted by: Wacre
Chavez
[Report this comment]
Posted by: dave236412 on May 31, 2006 2:28 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hey, remember that time Chavez was briefly overthrown in a coup, and every country except the United States condemned the coup and called for the restoration of democracy? I'm sure Chavez does. Or, hey, remember that time we re-armed former military death squads and let them overthrow Haiti's democratically elected president? Chavez probably learned something from that, too. I think if I were Chavez, I'd probably be trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

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» don't forget Allende... Posted by: brasilaron
» RE: don't forget Allende... Posted by: dave236412
» RE: don't forget Allende... Posted by: Joshua Holland
» RE: don't forget Allende... Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: don't forget Allende... Posted by: Joshua Holland
» RE: don't forget Allende... Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: Chavez Posted by: tclaverdure
Perhaps Mr. Chavez is Buying those AK's for the U.S. Poor!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: aussidawg on May 31, 2006 5:43 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hey...it's a thought! After all, he DID help us out with inexpensive oil after Katrina and Rita made their mad dash across the Gulf Coast. Maybe he is buying some of those AK-47's to sell to the American working poor at low cost so as to protect themselves (ourselves?) from the mad dash of the neocons over their/our once middle class lives.

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And Tio Sam......
[Report this comment]
Posted by: FedUp on May 31, 2006 7:50 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
has never, ever been anything less than fair in its ongoing paternal relationship with Latin America.......uh huh.
"Oh sí señor! Anything Tio Sam wishes for the people of Latin America must be good - no?"

From the BBC: "The move is likely to worry the US, which regards Mr Chavez as a destabilising influence in the region."
Translation: When Latin America starts thinking for itself, and begins acting for the welfare of its citizens and not the régimes strong-armed into place by the government of the US, they will be considered a destabilising influence in our hereditary sphere of influence.

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» RE: And Tio Sam...... Posted by: Aussie Kim
The right to arm bears
[Report this comment]
Posted by: YogiBear on Jun 1, 2006 5:37 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Chavez has been training and arming his people so that in the event of a US invasion, should his government be ousted, the people could fight on as individuals and militas.

Small arms may be worthless against helicopters and tanks, but a real war has to be won with boots on the ground wherever resitance takes hold. The Maquis are probably a good example of this; the French didn't go quietly during the German occupation. Of course, Iraq presents another good example.

The presence of the militas alone could give foreign entities (and possibly homeland ones as well) pause prior to any action, which probably is Chavez's true intent.

An armed citizenry is a danger to any power-seeking government.

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Who can blame him?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Krotos on Jun 1, 2006 8:28 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Given our actions and rhetoric over the past few years, Hugo Chavez would be derelict in his constitutional duty if he weren't doing everything in his power to provide for Venezuela's defense right now, including modernizing his military and making strategic alliances with other left-leaning Latin American countries. And the same goes for the leaders of Iran.

And no, I don't particularly care for either regime. But at present they are simply obeying their most basic responsibility to their citizens, to defend them from the threat of external attack. Shamefully, we are that threat.

-K.Ai.-

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