Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed that the Venezuelan government had forged out a deal in buying short-range missiles from Russia, as a way to strengthen security ties between the two countries.
Chavez, has long been known to oppose and criticize the United States' plan to increase military operations in neighboring country Colombia with that speculations rose that the arms deal might be a preparation for a sudden attack at the U.S.military facilities in Colombia.
Asked about the tentative conclusions Chavez said in a speech chronicled by the
New York Times,
“We are not going to attack anybody... these are just defense tools, because we are going to defend our country from any threat, wherever it may come from.”
According to the Times, the short-range missiles would be put within good firing range against Colombia or U.S. bases on the islands of Aruba or Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles.
Chavez did not give further information regarding the specific details on what type of Russian-made missiles the number of missiles they will buy.
Venezuela has announced their plans of buying more than $4 billion worth of weapons from Russia within this decade. So far, some of the deals have materialize including the purchase of Sukhoi fighter jets and SA-24 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles.
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