Article

2005-04-27 Caribbean-Latin America

Colombia Warns That Venezuelan Military Buildup Could Destabilize Andean Region

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Posted by Anonymoose 2005-04-27 11:14:32 AM|| || Front Page|| [8 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Wouldn't want to destablize the Andean region, it's been such a rock of stability all these years.

Posted by rjschwarz 2005-04-27 11:52:18 AM|| [http://rjschwarz.com] 2005-04-27 11:52:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 I'm sorry, but a couple gunships and a shitload of assault rifles are not my idea of particularly offensive weapons, nor are they by any stretch of the imagination "strategic". Not exactly police-issue, no, - but intrinsically offensive? Maybe if it was Costa Rica buying them. Or armor & artillery. But we're not exactly talking air superiority fighters and mechanized equipment, here.

Still looks like Chavez putting together a Sturm Abteilung to discourage the Venezuelan Army from throwing another coup d'etat to me.

Posted by Mitch H. 2005-04-27 3:06:36 PM|| [http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2005-04-27 3:06:36 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 First inclination is to write off Chavez as a Castroite pest, nothing more. (Maybe Venezuela should be renamed the "Mosquito Coast.")

But he's just stupid and unbalanced enough to dance with the devil. If he were to start cooperating with Al Qaeda, or even AQ wannabes, he could do a great deal of harm to us. AK-47s can do wonders in the hands of 15-20 jihadist kamikazes attacking a US school or a mall...

Posted by thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-27 3:14:14 PM|| 2005-04-27 3:14:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 thibaud (aka lex),
You are so right! I still do not understand why Americans understimate the possibility of this lunatic cooperating with muslim terrorists. There is a large population of arab muslims in Venezuela, mainly palestinians...do I need to say more?

Posted by TMH 2005-04-27 5:31:18 PM|| 2005-04-27 5:31:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Aligned with Castro and maybe also Lula and a leftist prez in Mexico, he could do a lot of mischief. More than mischief.

Posted by thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-27 6:13:28 PM|| 2005-04-27 6:13:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 I don't think that Rantburgers underestimate the possibilities, TMH, but our guys are a bit busy at the moment... ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2005-04-27 6:24:59 PM|| 2005-04-27 6:24:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Trailing wife,
I apologize. And I certainly understand that the US Armed Forces are busy right now.

Posted by TMH 2005-04-27 6:45:11 PM|| 2005-04-27 6:45:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 He already has, there were very interesting deals in 2002 and lots of passports issued.

Posted by anonymous2u 2005-04-27 7:03:26 PM|| 2005-04-27 7:03:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 For too long, the US has had a policy that both recognized that central and South America, for the most part, are filled with irresponsible and self-destructive imbeciles, vacillating between the dictators in power and the dictators currently out of power; and that it is not worth our while to bother with them. While the first part is not inaccurate, the second part must change. Central and South America must eventually enter our day-to-day sphere of mutual interest as part of "the Americas", otherwise they will continue their decline into something paralleling the middle east in the 1990s--a powder keg full of ambitious villains like Ghadaffi and Saddam. Already Britain has been at loggerheads with Argentina. Hopefully that will not be the trend for the other nations of the region. Picture how difficult and expensive it would be to base SOUTHCOM in a South American nation, subsequent to a US invasion.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-04-27 9:10:54 PM|| 2005-04-27 9:10:54 PM|| Front Page Top

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