[Mb-civic] Rumsfeld moves to destabilize Venezuela

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/Pv16ma05.html#destabilize 

Rumsfeld moves to destabilize Venezuela

(The following article is from the May 16-31/2005 issue of People's Voice,
Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if
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By Garry Leech

"Why would Venezuela's 32,000-strong Army need 100,000 new rifles?" U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked recently, suggesting that such
a weapons acquisition by the Chavez government could lead to an arms race
in the region.

Rumsfeld's reaction to the recent announcement that Russia had agreed to
sell 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles to Venezuela reeked of hypocrisy, given
the almost $3 billion in U.S. military aid provided to Colombia over the
past six years. The hypocrisy did not end there, however. The Bush
administration recently declared that it would sell F-16 fighter jets to
Pakistan, a move many claim will likely destabilize one of the world's
most volatile regions.

The U.S. defense secretary erroneously claimed that the Venezuelan Army
consists of 32,000 fighters, when it actually has 100,000 regular soldiers
and 30,000 reservists. Rumsfeld hinted at the motivation behind his
distortion of facts when he stated: "I can't imagine what's going to
happen to 100,000 AK-47s." He was clearly suggesting that the Chavez
government would supply these weapons to Colombia's leftist guerrillas.
Rumsfeld not only misrepresented the actual size of the Venezuelan
military, he also failed to note that Venezuelan troops are currently
armed with aging Belgian FAL rifles.

In sharp contrast, the Colombian military is armed with modern
Israeli-made Galil and U.S.-manufactured M-16 assault rifles, while also
being the recipient of more U.S.  military aid than any country besides
Israel and Egypt over the past five years. During this time, the Colombian
military has received more than 65 Blackhawk and Huey helicopter gunships,
established new battalions of elite troops trained and armed by U.S. Army
Special Forces soldiers, and has benefited from access to modern and
high-tech U.S. intelligence gathering methods.

If there is an arms race brewing in South America, it is clearly rooted in
the massive increase in U.S. military aid to Colombia under the "war on
drugs" and the "war on terror." The massive Colombian military build-up is
surely disturbing to the Venezuelan government, since Washington and
Bogota were among the first and only governments to recognize the coup
regime that briefly overthrew President Chavez in April 2002.

Rumsfeld's comments are just the most recent in a long line of anti-Chavez
rhetoric from the Bush administration intended to destablilize the
Venezuelan government. The U.S. State Department's recently released
annual human rights report severely criticized Venezuela for violations of
human rights. In sharp contrast, it ludicrously praised the human rights
performance of Colombia, which is among the world's leaders in massacres,
kidnappings, and killings of labour leaders, teachers and human rights
defenders. The Uribe administration also far surpasses the Chavez
government with regard to the number of arbitrary detentions and the
degree of impunity that exists in the country's judicial system.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently announced that it is
investigating war crimes in Colombia, many committed by the country's
military and right-wing paramilitary death squads. According to Luis
Moreno, the ICC's chief prosecutor, "The information received so far
indicates thousands of people have been killed, disappeared, kidnapped and
forcibly displaced since 1 November 2002." There is no evidence of such
gross human rights abuses being committed in Venezuela under President
Chavez's rule.

Rumsfeld's suggestion that Venezuela's arms purchases could lead to a
regional arms race seems hypocritical and irresponsible in light of the
recent U.S. decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. Such a
decision, clearly a reward for Pakistan's support in the "war on terror,"
can only aggravate tensions between Pakistan and India.  Both countries
currently possess 744 combat aircraft, but the U.S. sale threatens to
disrupt this military balance between nations which have already fought
several wars against each other, and which both possess nuclear weapons.

Bush administration officials have hinted that they might offset the new
imbalance in combat aircraft by also selling F-16s to India. Such a
cynical approach in South Asia will allow the U.S. military industrial
complex to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars that could have been
spent to alleviate the high levels of poverty in both India and Pakistan.
But this is nothing new. After all, most of the almost $3 billion in U.S. 
military aid for Colombia over the past six years never left the United
States - it went directly to the U.S.  companies that built the
helicopters and weapons sent to Colombia. In the post-Cold War era, it is
still business as usual for the world's leading weapons exporter. And
logically, global instability is an essential requirement for ensuring the
continued growth of the arms industry.

------


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