Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez signed agreements February 14 with the government of Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, “establishing a strategic, economic and military alliance,” the New York Times reported. The two governments are negotiating a $170 million purchase of 24 Brazilian-manufactured Super Tucano multi-purpose combat aircraft. The agreement follows Chávez’s trip to Moscow last November, where he announced that the Venezuelan government would acquire 40 helicopters and 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia. Press reports also say that Venezuela may buy MIG-29 fighter jets from the Russian government to replace its F-16s.

“Venezuela’s plans to purchase various types and large quantities of weapons are extremely troubling,” said State Department spokesman Lou Fintor, according to a February 10 Reuters article. “Our concerns about these weapons purchases are heightened by Venezuela’s tolerance for groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian terrorist group the National Liberation Army, and others.”

“It’s clear that there is an orchestrated campaign” [against Caracas], responded Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuelan ambassador to the United States. “I don’t know why, but the thing is to create the impression that we are a hostile country, a terrorist country, a pariah state.”

The government of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has accused Caracas of harboring FARC rebel leaders and tolerating rebel military camps along their 1,400-mile shared border. In a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty, Bogotá organized the kidnapping of Rodrigo Granda, a leader of the FARC, in Caracas on December 13. Diplomatic and commercial relations between the two governments were suspended until a February 15 meeting of the two presidents in the Venezuelan capital. After the meeting Chávez said he was restoring commercial and trade agreements including the construction of a gas pipeline between the two countries, reported the Associated Press.

Bogotá is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel and Egypt, totaling over $3 billion since 2000. Last October, the U.S. Congress authorized the Pentagon to double the limit on U.S. military personnel stationed in Colombia to 800 and increased from 400 to 600 the number of “private contractors” the U.S. government can hire for its military operations in the country. In the course of the border conflict over the last year, Venezuelan troops have captured more than 100 Colombian paramilitary soldiers within Venezuela. These “paramilitary” forces are rightist death squads that act as an extralegal extension of the Colombian military. Seven Venezuelan soldiers were killed by these forces during the third week in December.

Senior U.S. officials told the Washington Times that the U.S. State Department sent a letter of protest (formally called a demarche) February 10 to the Russian embassy in Washington for its arms agreements with the Venezuelan government.

In a State Department briefing concerning the demarche, spokesman Adam Ereli said, “our concerns about Venezuela’s arms sales and the potential destabilizing effect on the hemisphere are well known to all concerned. We’ve raised this issue with the Russians on a number of occasions.”

Venezuelan vice-president José Vicente Rangel defending Venezuela’s right to purchase weapons for national defense, said that recent statements by the U.S. government have a “deliberate intention to provoke Venezuela.” “Venezuela is a sovereign country that makes decisions that are of concern to Venezuelans,” he said.  
 
 
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