Venezuela says to buy 24 Russian fighter jets

By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez said on Wednesday his government planned to buy 24
Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets as part of increased military
spending to beef up his armed forces.

Chavez, a Cuban ally caught in a tense confrontation with
Washington, has already purchased Russian attack and transport
helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles to modernize the
military of the world’s No. 5 oil exporter.

“First of all we are going to buy 24 Sukhoi aircraft,”
Chavez said during an late-night event without giving more
details about the purchase.

Washington, which brands the left-wing former soldier a
destabilizing force in Latin America, last month banned sales
of U.S. military hardware to Venezuela due to concerns over
Chavez’s close ties to Havana and Tehran.

Chavez had already announced his intention to seek Russian
fighters to replace his government’s U.S.-made F-16 fighters
after accusing the United States of blocking sales of
replacement parts for the jets.

Wearing his old army uniform and red paratroop beret,
Chavez earlier on Wednesday handed new Russian-made rifles to
troops and vowed that Washington would not defeat his
self-styled socialist revolution for the poor.

Venezuela received a shipment of 30,000 Kalashnikov assault
rifles in June, weeks after Washington banned U.S. arms sales
over concerns about Chavez’s ties to longtime U.S. foes Cuba
and Iran and what it called his inaction against Marxist FARC
guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.

Chavez, who says the United States wants to topple him, has
ordered officers and civilian reservists to train for a
resistance war against U.S. troops who he says plan to seize
Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Washington dismisses his invasion talk as nationalist
bluster from a tyrant eroding democracy and using his oil
wealth to muscle in on neighbors.

“The U.S. empire has a campaign around the world trying to
isolate Venezuela so no one will sell us even a shotgun. This
is an act of victory,” Chavez told troops after inspecting and
sighting a target with one of the new rifles.

Chavez, who as a young army officer led a coup attempt
before winning power at the ballot box in 1998, received the
first of the new weapons as a gift.

With Russian help, Venezuela plans to build a Kalashnikov
rifle and ammunition factory near Caracas that will start
producing the weapons in about three years.