Adolfo was noticing that after Hugo Chávez chickened out last Saturday and Sunday he has remained a no-show for a couple of days now. He didn’t even show up for the president of El Salvador’s inaugural.
Fret no more: It was all due to a tummy ache. Coincidentally, he had been discussing diarrhea in his Friday Aló Presidente show. If you must, here’s the video of the show,
However, Hugo should make sure his interior minister Nicolás Maduro and one of the Venezuelan governors get the same memo for the excuses, since Monday evening the governor was saying Chávez was visiting his former wife while Maduro claimed that Chávez’s absence was due to security concerns on an attempt on Chávez’s life.
Whatever.
In more serious news, via Brian, Missile buildup in Venezuela has U.S. on edge
Venezuela’s recent weapons-buying binge has stoked U.S. fears that portable missile launchers could end up in the hands of Colombia’s FARC rebels.
Venezuela’s recent purchase of the most lethal shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in the Russian arsenal is sharpening U.S. concerns that parts of President Hugo Chávez’s massive weapons buildup could wind up in the hands of terrorists or guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.
Washington’s unease is well-founded, U.S. government officials say, because of credible evidence that three top Venezuelan officials offered Colombia’s FARC rebels weapons, money and contacts to buy anti-aircraft missiles in 2007.
Such missiles in the hands of the FARC would mark a steep escalation of the 45-year-old conflict in Colombia, where government forces in recent years have deployed a fleet of slow-moving ground-attack warplanes and U.S.-built helicopters to deal devastating blows to rebel jungle camps.
Maybe we could invite Hugo and the FARC over for hot dogs, once he gets over his tummy ache, that is.
I can only wonder how Pres da Silva will react when weapons supplied by his fellow socialist start shooting down ground support aircraft, the Tucano and Super Tucano, that are made in Brazil and sold to Colombia. However the US Blackhawk attack helicopter used by Colombia are not in much danger from even the latest squad manned anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.
To be honest I just don’t see much advantage for Russia to give Chavez a blank check to act precipitously in Latin America even for a few cheap points against the US. Venezuela seems to be always rearming but never actually rearming but haven’t yet figured out how to garner all tha cheap publicity that Iran gets every time it shows off a twenty year old weapon system in front of the gullible wire services. Those two Kalishnikov plants have still produced zero weapons even though they were supposed to begin production in the spring of 2008. Pakistani gunsmiths in the North-West Frontier Province can hand make an AK-47 on a foot powered lathe and even gold plate them while Chavez hasn’t produced even one.
On reflection what will probably happen is that Chavez will ship the older style SA-18s to FARC and keep the newer SA-24s for himself as they are expensive and like any dictator with a new toy that much more desirable then the old model. Both are not very effective against jamming and low flying planes, prop or jet, below 15,000 ft. To date they have been the most effective in shooting down passenger jets. Chavez could claim that their military capability is so poor that he is not contributing to an arms race. But look out for falling tourists and businessmen.