Venezuela gets 1800 shoulder fired anti air craft missiles from Russia

THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW. At a joint press-conferen...Image via Wikipedia
Washington Post:

Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons.

The United States feared that the missiles could be funneled to Marxist guerrillas fighting Colombia's pro-American government or Mexican drug cartels, concerns expressed in U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and first reported in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

It had been unclear how many of the Russian SA-24 missiles were delivered to Venezuela, though the transfer itself was not secret. Chavez showed off a few dozen at a military parade in April 2009, saying they could "deter whatever aerial aggression against our country." A high-level Russian delegation told American officials in Washington in July of that year that 100 of the missiles had been delivered in the first quarter of 2009.

Then earlier this year, Russia reported to the U.N. Register of Conventional Arms, which records the transnational sale of weaponry, that the deal totaled 1,800 missiles.

The U.N. registry did not reveal the model of the delivered weaponry. But the American commander for military forces in Latin America, Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, publicly expressed concern this year that Venezuela was purchasing as many as 2,400 of the missiles, also called the IGLA-S.

Matt Schroeder, a missile expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said the missiles are among the most sophisticated in the world and can down aircraft from 19,000 feet.

"It's the largest recorded transfer in the U.N. arms registry database in five years, at least. There's no state in Latin America of greater concern regarding leakage that has purchased so many missiles," he said, referring to reports of Venezuelan arms flowing to Colombian guerrillas.

...
The Chavez regime also has close ties with Hezballah and Iran. The US can deliver precision strikes from above 19,000 feet, but choppers used in air assaults would be vulnerable.

Venezuela is also reported to have received long range missiles from Iran that could possibly hit the US.

Chavez appears to be preparing for a war with the US, but at this point it looks like he is wasting his money as his country sinks economically. He is likely to be brought down by socialism before the US would strike him.

If Obama would quit strangling domestic production of oil and gas, we could cut off our dependence on his oil and leave his with very few customers for his heavy crude.
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