U.S. ban on arms sales to Venezuala

For those of you who want info on this, heres the link to an MSNBC article:



This is definetly going to be a blow to Venezuala's armed forces. For example, the U.S. planes it has will be cut off from spare parts. But it could mean other things. While relations between Venezuala and the U.S. have soured, Sino-Venezualan relations have improved massively - for example China has offered to sell J-10 fighters to that country - could it shift from relaince on the U.S.A. to reliance on China? This could be a good gap for the Chinese to exploit - Venezuala would porvide a good source of oil for China's economic development - if Bush decides to end trade with Pervez as well. Could Venezuala shift from being an American ally to a Chinese ally? What do you guys think?

I would so like to say few heavy words about the matter consisting several keywords like hippocracy, ass-rubbing and imperialism But i wont as we dont engourage political discussions. SO I WILL BE WHATCHING THIS THREAD!!

This is a huge surprise. I thought the US had stopped selling arms to Venezula ages ago:roll:

OK but seriously, the reason for this is a sale by Russia of 1000 Kalshnikovs, whcih the Venzualans will now produce domestically (under licence?). SO it looks as though it will be Russia not China that gets any lions share of the Arms Market here.

Russia sells the guns, China buys the Oil. Two countries therefore with an interest in Mr Chavez not having an "accident" any time soon. Maybe we are seeing the structure of the Sino-Russian International Co-operation, makes sense and can definatly work.

well mostly it buggs me that as US brings the terrorism as the reason for this, Can't they see it themself how much its chewing the credibility of the actions that actually has something to do whit terrorism? Chavez has quicly become the hero of the young left and his anti-americanism is so evident that US cannot fool even their closest allyes whit this sort of pull.

Well I would say that Venezuelan armed forces are already pretty much f….
US arms embargo is only tip of the iceberg…
Military is forced to buy equipment from various sources (Spain, Russia, Iran, probably China), they are changing tactics to guerilla stile warfare, and Chavez created "Bolivarian Militia" paramilitary which are getting more money then regulars( AK deal is for them).
Now consider that they for decades have relied on US and NATO standard equipment, they are train to maintain it, there logistics are based on it…
Now they will supplement FNC whit AK and Chavez is not even smart enough to buy AK in same caliber, they are buying Migs and Sukhois , since Brazil would not sell them Super Tucano they are considering su-25 purchase and if they buy J-10 logistics will become nightmare….
For former military man Chavez is f….. stupid… He jousts trying to buy political allays whit these purchases…

Wow, I thought the US government stopped selling arms a long time ago to Venenzuala. Well, Chavez is buying 100,000 AK-101's from Russia with ToT and I think that Mig-29SMT deal may also be in the works. So maybe Venenzuala's armed forces aren't in such a bad position after all.

Oh sh*t, my Internet connection! It's so slow, that I need to click many times before it works that always result in double post!

As I heard from TV news a few months ago, Chavez said the country has some F-16 (not sure what model) and lack of spare parts. He threated to send some of the aircraft to either China or Russia if the US not to supply spare parts! But I think this never happen.

In 2002, Venezuala experienced a coupe, Chavez was under house-arrested in a small island. But he was back to power within 48 hours. The coupe was speculated to be back by the US, however this is not confirmed.

The prospects for Chavez are quite bleak unless he can definitely get support
from China. Russia is as always a 'fair weather' friend.

Chavez so far has survived because of the instability that any US military
action would cause in the oil markets.

Unless he can export the native american liberty movement to countries on
his border eg Columbia, Guyana or even far away to Peru he's going to
be killed.

The Brazilians despite their much touted 'racial melting pot' regard the
native people's as a lesser group and they woul be more than happy to
crush Chavez if it would raise them in the eyes of the white north americans

Chavez is supported by the majority of Venezuelans, however this is the
poor native american majority and unless they are rapidly unified and trained
he will end like Che and latin america will rapidly return back to north
american control

To quote Bolivar "The man who preaches revolution in the america's is
ploughing the sea'

He will have messed up the country if the U.S. refuses to buy his oil - unless someone else decides to buy a lot of his oil, then the Venezualan economy is f***ed. Russia has plenty of its own oil and may or may not buy Chavez's supplies. China definetly will however, given that its main current supplier, Iran, is under threat from sanctions. China may decide to buy Venezualan oil if Sanctions are placed on Iran, in addition to supplies it will receive from Russia through the new proposed Sino-Russian oil pipeline. And if China does become Venezuala's best customer for oil, then it will mean Chinese military hardware and economic aid in return. It will be good for Chinese buissiness if there are no American rivals in Venezuala. If Chavez is going to turn his back on the U.S., then he will have to get suppourt from someone else - that someone is either going to be China or Russia - i can't imagine any European Country doing so, given that Venezuala is now seen as a terrorist sponsor by the Americans.

As I heard from TV news a few months ago, Chavez said the country has some F-16 (not sure what model) and lack of spare parts. He threated to send some of the aircraft to either China or Russia if the US not to supply spare parts! But I think this never happen

Click to expand...

Oh yea..Not a very good move on his part....Here is a yahoo news report on the possible move of F-16 from Venzuela to another country possibly Iran.....



Venezuela Weighs Selling U.S. Jets to Iran

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, perhaps Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chavez's government, a military official said Tuesday.

Gen. Alberto Muller, a senior adviser to Chavez, told The Associated Press he had recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela consider selling the 21 jets to another country.

Muller said he thought it was worthwhile to consider "the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes."

Even before the U.S. announced the ban on arms sales Monday, Washington had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F-16s.

Chavez has previously warned he could share the U.S. jets with Cuba if Washington does not supply parts for the planes. He also has said he may look into buying fighter jets from Russia or China instead.