Friday 12 September
2008, San José, Costa Rica
RUSSIA-VENEZUELA:
Cold War Coming to the
Caribbean?
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS (IPS) - Two
Russian Tupolev TU-160
strategic bombers landed
at Venezuela's main
Libertador military
airbase, 60 kilometres
from the capital, "to
carry out training
flights" in the region,
according to the Russian
Defense Ministry.
"Yes, eat your heart
out, 'pitiyanquis'
(little Yankee
imitators)," said
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez, in two
lengthy nationwide radio
and television
broadcasts Wednesday.
"What's more, I'm going
to pilot one of those
insects (planes)," he
added jokingly, while
confirming that the
bombers are at the
airbase for training
flights.
Russia announced a few
days ago that a naval
task force would be sent
to the Caribbean, and
military spokesman
Captain Igor Dygalo said
the vessels "would carry
out a series of
exercises, including
joint search and rescue
manoeuvres, as well as
telecommunications
trials" with their
Venezuelan counterparts.
Moscow's Foreign
Ministry spokesman,
Andréi Nesterenko, said
the navy would send four
ships in November,
including the
nuclear-powered cruiser
Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the
Great) and the
anti-submarine frigate
Admiral Shabanenko.
Russian anti-submarine
fighter planes are also
to take part in the
exercises and will be
"temporarily stationed"
at one of Venezuela's
air bases, he said.
"We want to calibrate
our defensive capability
with that of our
strategic allies, one of
which is Russia," said
Chávez, calling for
applause in response to
the arrival of the
TU-160s.
Sean McCormack, a
spokesman for the U.S.
State Department, said
the United States would
"watch" the Russian
bombers' manoeuvres
"very closely."
Although he said that he
still had no official
confirmation, if Russia
intended to send ships
to the Caribbean, he
quipped that "then they
(the Russians) found a
few ships that can make
it that far," making
light of the
announcement, according
to the Venezuelan
government's Bolivarian
News Agency.
Martha Lucía Ramírez,
who was Colombia's
Defence Minister in
2002-2003, the first
year of the rightwing
President Álvaro Uribe's
administration, asked
her country "to consult,
as necessary, with
international bodies
such as the Union of
South American Nations (UNASUR)
and the Organisation of
American States (OAS)."
Now a senator, Ramírez
said this should be done
"to discuss the
convenience of bringing
to Latin America the
global tensions between
powers, which are being
transferred into the
Andean and Caribbean
scenarios and constitute
a threat to the security
and stability of the
region."
The possibility of war
between Colombia and
Venezuela has been
studied for decades, as
a hypothetical conflict
with a foreign nation,
at the military
academies of both
countries.
Ramírez called to mind
that "Chávez reacted
angrily when there were
rumours that a U.S.
anti-drug base might be
installed in Colombian
territory (on the
peninsula of La Guajira,
along the Venezuelan
border), and threatened
imminent war (with
Colombia) if the base
was actually built."
"Why should we now
accept a foreign power's
military exercises, and
presence of its
warplanes in Venezuela?
We must sound the alarm
about the imbalance this
will cause. The tensions
between two military
powers (Russia and the
U.S.) could have tragic
consequences for the
region, like those
experienced in Georgia,"
Ramírez said.
In August, war broke out
between Russia and
Georgia, a former Soviet
republic on the Black
Sea in the Caucasus
region in August, over
the secession of the
Georgian region of South
Ossetia, causing a heavy
toll of deaths and
damages among the
civilian population.
In response, Poland and
the Czech Republic,
which are members of the
Western military
alliance NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty
Organisation),
accelerated their plans
to instal NATO missile
and radar systems.
According to Thomas
Gomart, an analyst with
the French Institute of
International Relations
(IFRI), sending Russian
military units to
Venezuela "is a double
move by Moscow:
increasingly open
questioning of U.S.
hegemony, and support
for energy
nationalisation, in
which President Chávez
is a standard-bearer."
Dmitry Orlov, of the
Russian Agency for
Political and Economic
Communications (APECOM),
said the plans for
military cooperation
with Venezuela indicate
that Russia may opt to
increase its military
presence in different
parts of the world.
While Moscow does not
necessarily have an
aggressive anti-U.S.
policy, it is taking
steps to defend its
geopolitical interests,
he said.
Chávez mocked his
critics, repeatedly
calling them "pitiyanquis"
and accusing them of
"seeing the ghost of
Soviet Union-style
communism appear, which
no longer exists;
instead, a sovereign and
independent Russia is
rising."
He defended the
procurement of weapons
from Russia and China
for over 4.5 billion
dollars in the past
three years, including
Sukhoi fighter jets, Mi
helicopters, Kalashnikov
assault rifles, radar
and missile systems,
patrol boats and
reconnaissance planes.
Submarines and other
equipment may be added
to the list.
"The 'pitiyanquis'
criticise the manoeuvres
with Russia, but they
say nothing about the
United States
redeploying its Fourth
Fleet after an interval
of 60 years, and having
a base right there in
Curaçao (one of the
Netherlands Antilles
islands, 50 kilometres
off the Venezuelan
coast)," Chávez said.
Teodoro Petkoff, an
opposition leader who is
fiercely critical of
Chávez in the columns of
his newspaper Tal Cual,
complained that the
president "wants to get
mixed up in the
mini-Cold War between
the United States and
Russia," and quoted a
popular saying meaning,
roughly, "when predators
fight, their prey should
stay out of the way."
Chávez "accuses Georgia,
with reason, of being a
pawn of (U.S. President
George W.) Bush, but he
is thoughtlessly
offering himself for
free, in the context of
a quarrel that has
nothing to do with us,
as a pawn for (Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir)
Putin," Petkoff
criticised. |
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