Russia to build military bases in Venezuela

undoubtedly these NEW military complexes will be used for the war with Colombia that Chavez is advocating.


http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/08/20/en_pol_esp_president-chavez-ask_20A2637965.shtml

President Chávez asks Russia to work faster on aeronautic complex
Russia provided Venezuela with more than 50 Mi helicopters
Politics
"At the request of President Hugo Chávez," Russia will cut short the terms to build several sites for maintenance and repair of Russian helicopters in Venezuela.

The facilities "will be available in two or three-year term," said Deputy Director General of state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Alexandr Mijeev, as quoted by Ria Novosti.

"We are building in Venezuela an infrastructure for maintenance and repair of Russian helicopters and they will be sites where engines, transmitters and other systems could be repaired," said Mijeev in the city of Zhukovski, where he was attending the MAKS 2009 International Airspace Hall, opened last Tuesday.

Russia provided Venezuela with more than 50 Mi helicopters.

As reported in 2007 by then Cojedes state governor Jhonny Yánez Rangel, the maintenance and repair workshops will be located inside the Ezequiel Zamora airport, in San Carlos, the capital city.

The article says nothing about bases. And I think El Universal or translators may have left a word out of this translation: the word "made"--"Russian-MADE helicopters."

"'We are building in Venezuela an infrastructure for maintenance and repair of Russian (-MADE) helicopters and they will be sites where engines, transmitters and other systems could be repaired,' said Mijeev in the city of Zhukovski, where he was attending the MAKS 2009 International Airspace Hall, opened last Tuesday."

That significantly changes the meaning of the paragraph. Venezuela is BUYING the helicopters. So, they are not "Russian helicopters" (belonging to the Russian military). They are Russian-MADE helicopters (belonging to Venezuela). It is perfectly reasonable and normal for the manufacturer of a large purchase like this to provide maintenance/repairs. This is not a "military base" and it is certainly not "military baseS." You have misrepresented the article in your subject line.

Nice try, though--at blaming Chavez for the seven new US military bases in Colombia, the $6 BILLION US taxpayer funding of the Colombian military, the US reconstitution of the US 4th Fleet in the Caribbean, and all the other indications of a US military buildup in Latin America, over the last year. You also failed to mention the US blockade on machine parts for planes that Venezuela purchased from the US, making the issue of maintenance/repair a critical one for Venezuela. They can't have their military planes dependent on political winds in a foreign country, so they wisely included on-site maintenance/repair as a condition of the purchase of Russian helicopters.

what do facts matter :(

Clicked on the El Universal link in the OP and the headline is:


PRESIDENT CHAVEZ ASKS RUSSIA TO WORK FASTER ON AERONAUTIC COMPLEX


(No mention of Russian military bases)

s

1) Nobody has posted an article stating "US is building 7 new bases"

2) Nobody has posted an article stating "US is going to invade Venezuela"

In fact, a quick perusal of threads in the Lat/Am forum (going back to about a month) shows that *YOU* even posted a headline mentioning a "US threat" to Venezuela!



If someoneone were to follow Latin American affairs based on your headlines, I wonder what kind of absurd, completely misguided view they might have!

I see you got the point!!!


and saying that Russia is building bases in Venezuela is at least as accurate as Chavez saying and other here repeating that the US is going to build or have seven new bases in Colombia.

:shrug:

No, I don't see the point to that.

wanting war, or threatening an invasion. and they are Russian military facilities in Ven apparently as opposed to Colombian facilities in Colombia.

who is misleading??

Just a thought!

alot fewer citations from "sources" like Telesur, Prensa Latina, Borev, Che'va's blog I would imagine and therefore alot fewer posts. maybe more objectivity instead of political spin though.

If you are not willing to abide by the standards that you denounce others for not following, you have no room to complain.

sounds like a military mission to me. I wonder how many of these sites there will be throughout the country. Oh, I am sure Russia is very happy to sell their weapons.

I don't think your attempt at splitting hairs makes a bit of difference. The important clause is this, "We (the Russians) are building in Venezuela for maintenance....and there will be sites...." Makes you wonder what other activities will be undertaken and who knows how many Russian bases there.

on the other hand, the US will be using up to 7 existing Colombian bases.

Chavez is the one talking war with Colombia and/or the US. I don't hear words of war coming from Obama or Uribe.

Anyone with half a brain can see that

Your article is about repair sites for helicopters. You make it out to sound like this constitutes some big threat to the U.S. military buildup taking place in the region. Please!

In fact, LBJ sold himself as "the peace candidate" in 1964. I remember it well. It was my first vote for president. I voted for peace. And what I got for that vote was 2 million Southeast Asians slaughtered, and over 55,000 US soldiers in body bags, before it was over.

Beware of Democrats bearing peace!

After the Bush Junta, the war mongers have to be a bit more clever in their manufacture of the next oil war--more Vietnam-like (gradual buildup, to be triggered by some phony incident)--although they are using the Big Lie technique from Iraq. "Chavez the dictator" is very similar to "WMDs in Iraq." But I guess that's standard for wars. What is more Vietnam-like than Iraq-like is this buildup of US forces in Colombia in particular, where the US has a bought-and-paid-for proxy army much like that in South Vietnam. It becomes easier, therefore, to create the illusion that the US is somehow "defending" an ally, and to manufacture incidents like the "Gulf of Tonkin." It could happen with the US 4th Fleet (reconstituted by the Bushwhacks last summer) in the Caribbean; it could happen anywhere along the Colombian borders with Vietnam and Ecuador (and has already been rehearsed, early last year, in Ecuador; and Colombia's recent Defense Minister, Santos, has openly threatened further such ops against Venezuela); and it could conceivably be cooked up with the Honduran air force (another proxy military; the US military permitted the Honduran military to land and refuel the plane carrying Honduras' kidnapped president out of the country, at the US military-controlled base at Soto Cano; and it offered no assistance to the ELECTED president when he tried to return, and the Honduran military blocked his plane from landing).

I don't know if Obama is collusive in setting up this oil war. It may well be that he himself is suffering a coup--that things have been done without his knowledge or consent, that leave him "twisting in the wind" on his stated policy of peace, respect and cooperation in Latin America. There are some signs of this on the Honduran coup and on the seven new US military bases in Colombia. What is clear is that somebody has a war plan for taking Venezuela's oil (and likely Ecuador's as well; and possibly also Cuba's and Brazil's), and assets for that war are being put into place. This is why the leadership of South America is so up in arms about US intentions. Lula da Silva has stated that the US 4th Fleet poses a threat to Brazil's oil. (Everybody south of the border knows that it is a threat to Venezuela's.) It was Brazil that proposed a "common defense." And all of these leaders know that Honduras is a template for overthrowing their democratic governments. Rafael Correa, in a AP article today, said that they have intelligence indicating, "After Zelaya, I'm next."

I think we're looking at Vietnam deja vu all over again, with a "military-industrial complex" that has gone completely out of control under the Bush Junta, and is fully capable to going completely out of control again, to get South America's oil, whether Obama wants it or not. If he's an obstacle (and it is looking increasingly like he might be), they can wait him out, Diebold him out of office in 2012, and install another "war president," meanwhile laying all the ground work for EASY escalation of US forces in South America.

We've seen this movie before, and no amount of "apologias" for US militarism, as it seeks to corner oil supplies for our Corporate Rulers by force, can blind those of us with MEMORIES.

if it didn't happen under Bush it ain't gonna happen now. "Beware of Democrats bearing peace!" well, you know this is Democratic Underground. Its intended for Democrats, not Chavez aficionados.

Activist, contributor as well.

I never thought being a Democrat meant being BLIND.

Chavez isn't a Democrat PP. he's not looking to do anything for you, just himself to remain in power. Chavez isn't interested in having a neighbor ideologically opposed to him.

he's done nothing to attempt to improve relations that he says he seeks. Obama will enact his own policies. He doesn't need Chavez's approval to do so.

I don't want bases in Colombia either. I don't want the war on drugs. I don't agree with Obama or every other administration either. but certainly on a global political level, Colombia and the USA are free to enact their own accords. Chavez's warmongering is just that.

If you are worried about foreign involvement on South America you had best look at China. But, as long as they are financing our life style, there is not a damn thing we can do about it. If we weren't the ugly American in South America we might be in a better position. If we want to have a future in South America we are going to have to get over our racism and start dealing and working with the 99% of the population who are not of European heritage.

And besides, if we are going to go around craping in someone else's backyard we have to expect to get a little crap in our backyard.

well, yours was an inaccurate statement to say the least.

yeah, I am certainly not worried about Russia in Latin America. Russia just wants the money from weapons sales.

I am not concerned about threats to Venezuela either from a US-Colombia alliance. What does Chavez have to fear? or hide???

or with any "small" country for that matter. do you want isolation, engagement, what??? is there a problem with building upon existing relationships???

They are now on a level so far above me that I can't even see them, despite growing up and going to school with them. But, it is not company I would want to keep.

my choice would be a relationship built on mutual respect and consideration. Not a tool to be used and discarded.

I got my start in politics, working in Barry Goldwater's office. Unlike the pols we have now, I never saw him meet someone he considered beneath him or below his level. His campaign was taken over by the same group that put Bush in. He was not of that group.

does that mean adopting Chavez' and Castro's interpretation of the meanings (policies)? Essentially, whatever they do and say, the US should agree with.

They might not like each other, but to play a game they all have to work together and follow the rules, otherwise the game becomes unplayable and breaks up. I'm sorry to say i see the US as the big bully in that schoolyard. He will beat up on people, lie, cheat and steal. As long as I'm beating up on myself, I see Colombia as the bully's sycophant, toddy up to him and doing whatever is asked. Venezuela I see as the one who stands up to the bully.

The schoolyard is going to change. You've been there, after a while the bully goes too far and everybody gangs up on him and beats the snot out of him.

We can go a little further and say that when Russia was a superpower then you had two bullies that opposed each other keeping each other in line, a sustainable condition. Just one super power is not sustainable, because there is nothing to keep the bully in line.

lies and cheats and accuses others when he doesn't get his way. extremely immature. not all the kids play together at the same time and there is more than one game the kids can play. It doesn't have to be the crybaby's game.