South American Arms Race

[ORAC]

Associated Press: Venezuela gets $2.2B in credit for Russian arms (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hdwZprjIwGqpaytihP4GRDfAGC0AD9AMMN800)

VHeadline: Chavez declares the FARC an insurgent force (http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=84066)

Columbia Reports: Preparing for war with Venezuela (http://colombiareports.com/opinion/131-gustavo-silva-cano/5892-preparing-for-war-with-venezuela.html)

[Boy_From_Brazil]

Chavez is totally unstable. Probably a major factor for the reason that Brazil is looking at purchasing 36 Rafales, F-18s, or Gripens. However, I am not too sure about Lula's sanity either - he has already promised the French that he will buy Dassault, much to the dismay of the Brazilian armed forces.

[CirrusF]

Russia is LENDING Venezuala around $2bn of military aid.

The USA has GIVEN Colombia around $700m of military aid per year, every year, since 2000 -total around $6.5bn, and rising.
Plan Colombia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Colombia)

Chavez is no angel, but if you have an unstable neighbour on your doorstep allied to the world's largest power, who can blame him for taking steps to defend his country.