Chavez Salutes General Kalashnikov

[Year: 1]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_...wN5bnN1YmNhdA-- (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela;_ylt=AmGMDAujPdHWoCf2MoQj8G.3IxIF;_ylu=X 3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--)

[Global_Justice]

no surprise. they need to protect themselves from a US invasion.

[Sense-A]

looks like an arms race to me. Russia making about $540 per gun. Seems in the article even the USA has supplied Venezuela with jets. Venezuela must have so much oil they're spending it to industrialize. This probably won't lead to a venezuela/USA war. But it'll eventually lead to some war.

[RebeldePorLaPAZ]

To me it seems Venezuela is trying to do what many countries in Latin America can't do simply because they don't have the money. What Venezuela is doing is actually building a military that can stand up to an invasion (U.S.) and or to defend any ally Latin American country, (Cuba, Bolivia, Argentina and poss Brazil) and they are doing it through their oil.

They are preparing to defend their sovereignty.


--Paz

[Delta]

It is also obtaining a license to eventually produce its own rifles at the first Kalashnikov factory in South America

Interesting.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

I assume the U.S. find a more self-sufficient Venezuela (the fifth largest oil exporter in the world, and the fourth largest oil supplier to the Unied States) frightening.

And with building a Kalashnikov factory in Venezuela, that nation will become more self sufficient politically (don't have to compromise in order to get military deals) and economically and militarily.

They accuse Venezuela of aggression, but I think what the U.S. is really trying to say (of course without saying it publicly) is that it is an aggression against U.S. dominance and interests in Venezuela and indirectly the whole of South America.

[Connolly]

What a complete waste of money.

Billions being spent on fighter jets yet people lie homeless in the streets.

I wonder how much Chavez and his counterparts are getting from these arms deals.

All communists should oppose the strengthening of the bourgeois state.

[Marukusu]

All communists should oppose the strengthening of the bourgeois state.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Venezuela opposes US imperialism, and so do I.

[Louis Pio]

Billions being spent on fighter jets yet people lie homeless in the streets.


All in all you need to protect the yourself against american imperialism to be able to have any chance to improve conditions. Or should it just be Chile all over again? That had terrible consequences for the workers....

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Exactly.. if anything, Venezuela is taking way to long to arm the people as it is.. this process should've been started long ago.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Apparently, at least some (all?) of the AK-103 assault rifles will be handed out to the military.

And of course, the 24 Su-30 fighter jets, Russian military helicopters, Spanish transport planes, patrol boats and other items will belong to the military.

Is this not risky play, giving the military more power? Or have all of the officers hostile to Chavez, with absolute certainity, been ousted?

The aging FAL weapons, will they be given to the people's militia (or whatever it is called in Venezuela)?

[Psy]

Originally posted by [email protected] 7 2006, 05:28 PM
Apparently, at least some (all?) of the AK-103 assault rifles will be handed out to the military.

And of course, the 24 Su-30 fighter jets, Russian military helicopters, Spanish transport planes, patrol boats and other items will belong to the military.

Is this not risky play, giving the military more power? Or have all of the officers hostile to Chavez, with absolute certainity, been ousted?

The aging FAL weapons, will they be given to the people's militia (or whatever it is called in Venezuela)?
The AK-103 is not a good people's weapon, it is a light weight version of the AK-47 with far better accuracy but is less durable. There are stories of AK-47 being run over by tanks in soft ground and still being fully functional once taken appart and fully cleaned.

[MiniOswald]

Originally posted by [email protected] 7 2006, 09:59 AM

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Venezuela opposes US imperialism, and so do I.
So youd support islamic fundamentalism if they were blowing up americans?

[WUOrevolt]

Originally posted by [email protected] 7 2006, 01:59 PM

All communists should oppose the strengthening of the bourgeois state.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Venezuela opposes US imperialism, and so do I.
That kind of logic is messed up. If you oppose Israel and so does the KKK, are they your friend?

Back on topic, I agree with The Red Banner. Venezuela has more pressing issues than an arms race with the U.S.

[Janus]

Chavez has already started arming the masses so as to establish a militia to oppose a possible US invasion.

If Venezuela is setting up their own Kalashnikov factory, then it seems that they will be making their own type of Kalahnikov guns and reduce their dependence on foreign nations for military aid. Something that would be quite crucial in a protracted war.

[Year: 1]

It would be reactionary suicide not to arm the people! Che said: "The first task of the revolution is to keep the revolution." Chavez's revolution is not done yet. It is still in its infancy and if its to proceed any further it needs to have arms. The workers of Venezuela have many enemies on the bourgeoisie and middle class not to mention the CIA and their agents provacateurs doing what they do best operating in the shadows. I can not understand or endure the utopians' arguments.

[Janus]

It would be reactionary suicide not to arm the people! Che said
Yep. Che learned that lesson firsthand during the CIA's coup in Guatemala in 1954 when Arbenz refused to arm the people.

[ahab]

I'm all for the arming of venezeula, they have the right to protect against any invasion, american or not.

[Louis Pio]

It's a good thing in my oppinion.

In Chile in 1973 (if I remeber correctly that was the time of the coup...) people chanted "Allende allende the people will defend you" Allende however didn't distribute any arms, and the result was military dictatorship. Alot of things need to be done in Venezuela and it is still capitalist, but there is a revolutionary situation and the outcome will, to use Rosa Luxemburgs words, be either socialism or barbarism. A defense against foreign aggression is one of the steps on the right way. And arming the people and even bigger step (the most important, forming workers militias is now extremely crucial, the defense comitees are not enough).

I think the point some people make against strenhgtening the army has some validity, however we need to keep in mind that the rank and file of the army is made up of ordinary people who for the biggest part has family in the bolivarian movement also and as all others they are influenced by the society they live in. Besides from that they have the experience from the first coup, were their officers tried to fool them, that will be hard to do in the event of a new coup attempt.

[Sense-A]

in a socialist government, since the country's resources are used to acquire the weapons, shouldn't the weapons be free to all the citizens and not restricted for use only by venezuelen leadership/military?

[Karl Marx's Camel]

since the country's resources are used to acquire the weapons, shouldn't the weapons be free to all the citizens and not restricted for use only by venezuelen leadership/military?

So if it was up to you, how would the weapons be distributed?

[Janus]

Chavez has already begun arming the people through the formation of militias in case of a US invasion or plot.

[piet11111]

well i can understand that chavez is busy modernising the army but if i where him i would send the replaced weapons to the militia's.
and the factory should produce for both the military and the militia's so that they will eventually also have AK's

any info on what is going to happen to the replaced weapons ?

[Janus]

Chavez got a shipment of Ak-47's from the Russians that he is using to arm his militia with.

I would assume that the militia would also be making use of the old FN FAL weapons as well since that is the general procedure, I believe.

[Axel1917]

Originally posted by The [email protected] 7 2006, 09:49 AM
What a complete waste of money.

Billions being spent on fighter jets yet people lie homeless in the streets.

I wonder how much Chavez and his counterparts are getting from these arms deals.

All communists should oppose the strengthening of the bourgeois state.
So, you would rather just have the US march in and smash the revolutionary process that has been going on for some years now? :o

A revolution needs to be defended, and just focusing on distribution will totally end up reversing all gains when the unprepared revolutionaries are smashed. Trotsky did not just sit around and do nothing in regards to foreign invasion.

AK's are very cheap, rugged, and reliable. Something that cannot be said of the POS M-16.