Latin American defense ministers meet amid concerns
over Venezuela's arms buildup

by Julie Watson

Bolstered by booming oil profits, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been on a military spending spree, raising fears that one of Washington's fiercest foes in Latin America is threatening the region's military balance.

Those concerns are expected to be debated this week when defense ministers from across the Americas meet at the seventh Western Hemisphere's Defense Ministers Summit, which kicks off Monday. Some Latin American leaders are calling for limiting arms and working together to combat shared problems of drug trafficking and street crime.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in Managua late Sunday for the meetings.

"A new arms race has started in Latin America," Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said recently at a meeting in Miami. "It's unfortunate that governments of some of the poorest nations continue buying tanks, jeeps, and arms to supposedly protect populations that continue living in poverty and ignorance."

Costa Rica will not be represented at the meeting, however, because as a country with no standing army, it has no defense minister.

Washington is closely watching Venezuela. Chavez recently closed deals with Russia worth roughly US$3 billion (euro2.4 billion) for 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets and 53 military helicopters. Venezuela is also obtaining a license to eventually produce its own rifles at the first Kalashnikov factory in South America.

Chavez -- who has repeatedly accused the United States of planning to invade his country -- has said Venezuela will install an advanced air-defense system equipped with anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down approaching enemy warplanes. He is considering buying components from Russia, Belarus and Iran.

The purchases come despite a U.S. ban on arms sales to Venezuela because of fears they threaten stability in the region, where a new wave of sharp-tongued, leftist leaders are challenging Washington's corporate-backed, free-market policies.

Venezuela's defense spending is still dwarfed by U.S. defense spending, which is to reach roughly US$500 billion (euro390 billion) this year, including the war costs for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chile has also been arms shopping after a windfall from high prices for its copper exports boosted its defense budget, which receives 10 percent of revenue from copper sales abroad.

The South American country has bought 28 U.S.-made F-16 jet fighters, eight frigates, two submarines and 108 German-made Leopard tanks, at a combined cost of US$2.8 billion (euro2.3 billion).

Chile's Socialist leader, President Michelle Bachelet, has said her country is only renewing obsolete equipment so that its military is ready for humanitarian missions and natural disaster relief. The German-made tanks replaced tanks dating back to the Korean war.

Neighboring nations have criticized the move as starting an arms race, while Peru has raised eyebrows at Chile's decision to put the F-16s in the northern port city of Iquique near its border.

Peru and Chile disagree over their 200-mile (322-kilometer) maritime boundary, while many Peruvians and Bolivians still hold a grudge over territory lost to Chile in the 1879-84 War of the Pacific.

Chile ordered the planes after the U.S. ended a 20-year ban in 2000 on the sale of high-tech weaponry in Latin America. Bachelet has said no additional arms purchases are planned.

Venezuela says its military buildup is necessary to fend off a U.S. invasion, a claim American officials have dismissed as ridiculous although the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has called Chavez a threat to the region's democracy.

Chavez, a former paratroop commander, has been courting critics of Washington in what he calls an effort to create a global counterbalance to U.S. domination. He has crafted a socialist trade block with Cuba and Bolivia, signed a series of deals with Iran and supported North Korea's right to test-fire missiles.

The fiery populist, who recently compared Bush to the devil in a speech to the United Nations, has also offered to help poor nations including Bolivia construct military bases and possibly upgrade woefully under-equipped forces.

Chavez, who is competing against Guatemala for a seat on the U.N. Security Council, has also proposed members of the Mercosur trade bloc -- Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay -- one day join their militaries to guarantee the region's security.

Costa Rica and Nicaragua are promoting limiting arms in the region, while defense ministers plan to discuss new humanitarian roles for their forces at the five-day summit.

Nicaraguan officials have said Central America needs such controls to reach a reasonable balance of power. The government is working on destroying many of its surface-to-air missiles and its anti-personnel land mines.

Scores of mines remain in Nicaragua, leftover from the country's civil war. Many have killed and maimed rural residents who have stumbled across them.

Source: Associated Press Newswires