Chavez Criticizes U.S. On Arms Purchases

Thank you current for an excellent post articulating Chavez warranted concern for US intervention on democracies in Latin America as it has done in the past. Sam the Sixth has the profound simplicity to call Chavez an ass for arming himself, when the US the nation involved in a coup against, then starts building up bases in columbia. Columbia, the US ally in the region (who warrants being an ally because they repress labor -- have been responsible for killing more labor organizers every year for about fifteen years, many years more than the rest of the world combined). And Chavez spends a little bit on military, which again is a fraction compared to the US which spends about what the rest of the world does combined.
Please use your critical thinking when hearing US government allegations of his alleged links to FARC. He was involved in negotiating release of FARC prisoners and has repeatedly and vocally condemned their gorrilla war. The US
Just b/c someone calls the US for what it is, the US that refuses to join the Internation Criminal Court, tortures prisoners, fights illegal wars, etc.

The US is the only country to express concern over Venezuelan arm purchases, while every other nation in the region condemned

For anyone who is criticizing his 'takeover of the media' you have actually never listened to the media in venezuela. if you would you would realize the station that he shut down was involved in a coup (and he just didn't renew their license after it ran out-- imagine how our government would respond if our media incited a coup against-- we already have a bill going through congress where the government can control the internet during periods of destabilization, we've already had so many impositions on the rights of especially Islamic persons.) Please read
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/venezuela-and-the-media-fact-and-fiction/
on what is really going on in the Venezuelan media.

Please learn some basic critical thinking when evaluating what comes out of the mouth of your consistently disseptive political system. Finally for earlier posts explaining why Chavez is not as awful as he's presented see my earlier comments to posts on venezuela

http://current.com/items/90889608_south-of-the-border-oliver-stone-celebrates-ch...

and

watch the documentary "the revolution will not be televised" at freedocumentaries.org

and the article by Cepr

http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela-2009-02.pdf

The guy is an ass. We should call him out on the carpet for this and the media takeover.

Well I'm criticizing him on his attack on the Venezuelan media. Eat shit Chavez.

MIAMI - 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 Chavez'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.

"We are concerned about Venezuelan arms purchases that exceed its needs and are therefore potentially destabilizing," State Department spokeswoman Sara Mangiaracina said. "The Man-Portable Air Defense Systems Venezuela have purchased from Russia are sophisticated weapons systems. It is important that these weapons systems be appropriately controlled to avoid the possibility of diversion."

Financed by high oil prices, Chavez has been on a weapons-buying binge since 2006, purchasing more than $4 billion worth of Russian Sukhoi jets, Mi helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles for what he says is the professionalization of his 62,000-member armed forces and the defense of his "socialist revolution" from U.S. aggression.

he's done the same thing so he can STFU