Financial Times : Brazil Deal Spurs Fears of Chavez Arms Race

FT.com / World / Americas - Brazil deal spurs fears of Chavez arms race

More evidence that several South American countries may soon find themselves on the Bush administration's "hit list": the axis of evil. For background on this story, look here, and be sure to click on the links within the link to see other stories going back to November.

Venezuela is planning to buy fighter jets from Brazil, and has signed an economic pact with Brazil to bolster trading ties. Most notable in this agreement is the growing cooperation between the two nations' state-owned oil companies.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is an advocate of Latin American unity in the face of what some see as US attempts to dominate the southern hemisphere. He has already survived an attempted 2004 coup by alleged CIA-supported forces, and was warned recently by Cuba's Fidel Castro of a purported American plot to assassinate him. Juan Ferero, writing in the New York Times notes that "The Bush administration, which has been in an increasingly tense war of words since tacitly supporting a brief coup against Mr. Chávez in 2002, has warned that the arms purchases could benefit "irregular groups," meaning Marxist rebels in neighboring Colombia.

"Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is attempting to divert its oil shipments away from the US, its traditional market, to China, a policy decision that has sounded alarm bells in Washington. Caracas is also in negotiations with Russia to buy as many as 50 Mig-29 SMT warplanes, the most advanced model, and it has already agreed to acquire 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles and 40 helicopters...

"The US Department of State said last week that it had warned Moscow of the “potential destabilising effect on the hemisphere” of arms sales to the government of Mr Chávez, a left-leaning radical nationalist. But Mr Chávez rebuffed US concerns as “meddling” in Venezuela's domestic affairs and branded the US a “terrorist state” for its activities in Iraq."

Freedom on the march? Spreading democracy around the world? Or enacting the agenda of the PNAC?

We report.

You decide.