President Hugo Chávez reported Wednesday that Venezuela's Minister of Planning and Finance Jorge Giordani will travel to Moscow in a few weeks to "fine-tune the details" of a USD 4 billion loan the Russian government will grant to Venezuela to buy weapons. On Wednesday, Chávez received Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Miraflores presidential palace and at the end of the meeting the Venezuelan president answered the questions posed by three...

Russia appears ready to sell Venezuela the same five advanced S-300PMU-1 air defense missile battalions it withheld from Iran because of international sanctions. Debkafile’s military sources report Venezuela’s ruler Hugo Chavez, offered to buy them when he met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow Thursday, Oct. 14. Israel immediately turned to Washington to try and block the transaction. Clearly, the highly-sophisticated interceptors are bound for their original client,...

Brazil will start manufacturing unmanned aircrafts with the help from Israel, thus allowing the South American country to control drug trafficking on its border areas. However, the Brazilian authorities may not sell them neither to Bolivia nor to Venezuela, as instructed by the Israeli government. Miki Bar, a representative of state-run company IAI, which manufactures the unmanned aerial vehicles Vants, said that Tel Aviv authorized the manufacturing and export of the aircrafts to Brazil,...

The Spanish police thwarted the sale of nine helicopter gunships to Iran and war material to Venezuela in an operation in which the vendors, five Spanish businessmen and three Iranians who traveled to Spain to finalize purchase, were arrested. According to the Directorate General of Police and Civil Guard, “those arrested also had planned to sell spare parts of fighter aircrafts to Venezuela.” “In the operation called ‘Nam’, we seized nine Bell-112 helicopters,...

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reported on Wednesday that Venezuelan forces had captured Guillermo Enrique Torres, aka "Julián Conrado," a guerrilla leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who was also known as the FARC's singer. Santos said that the arrest was made on Monday in a Venezuelan government operation, with the help of Colombian authorities, Efe reported. Conrado was also known in the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of...

With the acquisition of hundreds of tanks, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles as well as submarines and missile networks, Venezuela is arming itself at a speed unprecedented in the history of the South American country. Experts consulted by El Nuevo Herald have said that Hugo Chávez’s has created unrest in the region with purchases to expand its military that total more than $15 billion. The analysts warned that the purchases are made in an improvised fashion, following a...

"Do you think that (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chávez will stop buying Russian weapons if we have a fight? What is the end of keeping on fighting because he is buying Russian weapons?" said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos when asked about an arms race in the region, in an interview with US network CNN. Santos ruled out the possibility that this issue may undermine relations with Venezuela. Additionally, he stressed that "this is a good time for dialogue"...

San José- The country is bolstering defenses close to its border, where it’s locked in a dispute with neighboring Nicaragua, Costa Rican Security Minister José María Tijerino said. Tijerino said security forces have established several landing areas for helicopters close to Calero Island in the delta of the San Juan River, which is at the heart of the dispute. Costa Rica does not have military. Nicaraguan military personnel were deployed to the island last year,...

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of...

Russia gave Venezuela a $4 billion credit to buy weapons when President Hugo Chavez visited Moscow last month, adding to billions the socialist leader has already spent on re-equipping the army. Venezuela and Russia have forged deep ties in energy and defense, with Russian investment flowing into the OPEC member's oil fields at the same time as Chavez has become one of Moscow's most important weapons customers. Washington views with suspicion Chavez's purchases of tanks, fighter jets and air...