Category — Venezuela

by Ray Walser and Mackenzie Eaglen | The Heritage Foundation

Almost half a century after the Cuban missile crisis, the Russian navy is coming to the Americas. While the mood in Washington is far from panicked, neither is it mirthful. There is a sense of discomfort and dissatisfaction with the voyage of the Russian flotilla and concern about where U.S.-Russian and hemispheric relations are headed.

In the coming weeks, media attention will focus on the passage of the Russian squadron into Caribbean waters, where in November it will conduct joint exercises with the Venezuelan navy. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez extols growing military ties with Russia as a means to escape from under the thumb of U.S. hegemony and to build a multi-polar world. Subsequently, one can count on Chávez to maximize the publicity value of the Russian fleet’s presence in American waters and to continue flaunting his anti-American agenda and growing connections with Russia. Incidentally, state and municipal elections will take place on November 23 in Venezuela. For the Russians, the naval maneuvers appear to be a form of payback for U.S. support for the democratic nation of Georgia and for the presence of U.S. warships in the Black Sea.

Showing the Russian Flag (Again)

On September 22, four surface warships departed from Russia’s Northern Fleet home base in Severomorsk for the 15,000-mile journey to the warm waters of the Caribbean. The fleet is led by the nuclear-powered guided missile battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great).When fully armed, it is a formidable warship able to carry at least 400 missiles and anti-submarine warfare weapons, including 20 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 “Shipwreck,” according to NATO), which are heavy supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles with a maximum range of 300 nautical miles. The SS-N-19 can be armed with either a 750-kilogram conventional or a 500-kiloton nuclear warhead. The battle cruiser can carry three helicopters and has an endurance of 60 days and a maximum speed of 32 knots.

Sailing with the battle cruiser is a destroyer, the Admiral Chabanenko, whose main armament consists of eight supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles of the P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22 “Sunburn”) type with ranges of approximately 120 kilometers and capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads. [Read more →]

Related posts

• Russia’s $1 billion military loan to Venezuela (0)
• Regional security in the Americas (0)
• US intel analyzes video of Fidel (0)
• Cuban intelligence warns of possible plot against Chavez (0)
• Russian warships head across Atlantic (0)

The New York Times reports Russia has provided Fidel Castro’s protégé Hugo Chavez and Venezuela a $1 billion military loan. Venuezuela’s pursuit of military hardware and modernization is tilting heavily the military balance in Latin America in its favor. NYT further elaborates:

Russia stepped up efforts to project its increased might on the world stage on Friday, welcoming President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela by signing a $1 billion military loan to Venezuela and announcing wide-ranging plans to modernize its nuclear deterrence.

[...]

The $1 billion loan for arms purchases and military development was announced in a Kremlin statement released Thursday night. The statement said Mr. Putin and Mr. Chávez had spoken on enhancing economic cooperation and trade in commercial goods as well as military technologies.

The $1 billion loan will help finance programs related to military-technical cooperation, the statement said. The Kremlin would not elaborate on the details of the deal.

Between 2005 and 2007 Venezuela has signed 12 contracts for weapons purchases from Russia for a total of more than $4.4 billion, the Kremlin statement said.

The move is the latest gesture of military friendship between Russia and Venezuela, two counties that have increasingly positioned themselves as mavericks vis-à-vis the West. [Read more →]

Sphere: Related Content

Tags: Caribbean, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, military balance, military loan, military technologies, multipolar world, nuclear deterrence, President Hugo Chavez, Russia, technical cooperation, transport helicopters, Venezuela, venezuelan navy

Related posts

• Regional security in the Americas (0)
• Putin’s navy, Chávez’s ambition, and the Caribbean adventure (0)
• The Monroe Doctrine: Circling the Drain (0)
• Cuban intelligence warns of possible plot against Chavez (0)
• Cuban espionage, threat to the Americas (0)

Further information on Kirov Class (Type 1144.2) (Peter the Great) Heavy Missile Cruiser, Russia, click here.

Related posts

• Putin’s navy, Chávez’s ambition, and the Caribbean adventure (0)
• The Monroe Doctrine: Circling the Drain (0)
• South American Arms Race (0)
• Russian bombers in Venezuela (0)
• Russia, Cuba and Latin America (0)

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady | Wall Street Journal

Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike inflicted misery on millions of Cubans. But when the Castro dictatorship looks at the devastation, it sees opportunity.

Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who took over as head of state in February, for years have been calling for an end to the U.S. embargo, which they say is starving Cuba. But Cuba can already buy from U.S. producers all the food and medicine it can pay cash for. What the totalitarian tag-team really wants is an end to the ban on private-sector credit to the Cuban government.

Their demand has gone nowhere in Washington, both because of moral objections to doing business with tyrants, and because the Castro brothers are world-class deadbeats. They have defaulted on billions of dollars in debt to the rest of the world, and want credit from the “empire” (i.e., the U.S.) only because their options for borrowing elsewhere have narrowed significantly.

Now they are using the latest Cuban tragedy to ratchet up the pressure on Washington through the international press. Rather than accept an offer of $5 million in humanitarian assistance from the U.S., the regime is demanding that the credit ban be lifted. [Read more →]

Related posts

• Regional security in the Americas (0)
• 150 mph winds tear through Cuba (0)
• Putin’s navy, Chávez’s ambition, and the Caribbean adventure (0)
• I see stars… (0)
• Cuban intelligence warns of possible plot against Chavez (0)

Via AFP:

Chinese K8 Korakum trainer. (Image: sinodefense.com)

Venezuela will buy combat and training aircraft from China this week, leftist Venezuela President Hugo Chavez confirmed in a television broadcast Sunday.

The purchases will be made as part of a six-country tour, Chavez said in his broadcast of the “Alo President” television program from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, hours before leaving on a “strategic interest” trip to Cuba, China, Russia, Belarus, France and Portugal.

Chavez, a staunch foe of the US government, confirmed that during his stay in Beijing he will purchase 24 K-8 aircraft “to train fighter pilots.” The planes could be part of Venezuela’s air force by next year.

The president also confirmed that while in Beijing he will arrange the construction of tanker vessels in Chinese shipyards, with the aim of installing a shipyard in Venezuela in the near future.

These plans come in addition to the construction of a refinery in China to process oil from Venezuela, and plans to create a bi-national company to install a refinery in the remote oil-rich Orinoco region in eastern Venezuela. [Read more →]

Related posts

• US intel analyzes video of Fidel (0)
• Spain exported arms to Cuba (1)
• Russia, Cuba and Latin America (0)
• Regional security in the Americas (0)
• Putin’s navy, Chávez’s ambition, and the Caribbean adventure (0)

Glonass satellite system. (Illustration: Ria Novosti.)

Via Space Daily:

Russia could include Cuba and Venezuela into a satellite navigation system originally designed for missile targeting by the Soviet military, the head of Russia’s space agency said Wednesday.

“We discussed the theme of joint use of the Glonass satellite navigation system,” Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying, referring to talks with the authorities in Venezuela.

Perminov said similar negotiations had been held with Cuban authorities and that Moscow and Havana had talked “in a preliminary way about the possibility of building a space centre in Cuba with our assistance,” RIA Novosti reported.

Glonass was developed for missile targeting by the Soviet army in the 1980s to compete with the GPS system used by the United States. The project is expected to be completed, with 24 satellites in orbit, by 2009.

Glonass is currently administered by the Russian defence ministry.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week boosted financing for the long-delayed project by 1.85 billion euros (2.61 billion dollars). Glonass also aims to compete with the European Union’s Galileo system.

Russia has boosted military cooperation with Venezuela in recent months, reviving memories of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War in the Caribbean region.

In a move seen as a direct response to US plans to set up missile defence installations in the Czech Republic and Poland, Russia this month announced it was dispatching warships and long-range bombers to Venezuela for exercises

Related posts

• Cuba’s emerging leverage (0)
• Russia, Cuba and Latin America (0)
• Moscow and Havana (0)
• LUKoil’s Cuba Plans Stymied in Venezuela (0)
• I see stars… (0)