DTN News - HUGO CHAVEZ NEWS: Venezuela Protests Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement On Hugo Chavez As 'Insensitive'

DTN News - HUGO CHAVEZ NEWS: Venezuela Protests Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement On Hugo Chavez  As 'Insensitive'
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources CBC News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 7, 2013: Venezuela has sent a formal protest to the Canadian government for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "insensitive" remarks on the death of President Hugo Chavez.

Harper issued a statement that offered "condolences to the people of Venezuela," but not the family of the flamboyant 58-year-old leftist leader, who died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

A statement from a senior Venezuelan government official says a "card of protest" was sent to Ottawa after Harper expressed what he called insensitivity at a time when their country is grieving.

A wordy note from the vice-minister for North America, Claudia Salerno, said Caracas was protesting "in a blunt and categorical way, the statements issued the 5 of March 2013 by the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, as they constitute insensitive and impertinent sentiments at a time when the Venezuelan people are grieving and crying over the irreparable physical loss of the Commander President Hugo Chavez Frias."

Harper said in his short statement on Tuesday that he hopes the death of Chavez brings a more promising future for the Venezuelan people.

"At this key juncture, I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights," Harper said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Harper also said that he looked forward "to working with (Chavez's) successor and other leaders in the region to build a hemisphere that is more prosperous, secure and democratic."

'Cold War socialism'
Harper has in the past pointedly challenged the world view of the influential Venezuelan leader, notably in a lengthy one-on-one interview with the Postmedia news service nearly four years ago before he was about to meet Chavez at the Summit of the Americas.

Harper had said Chavez was emblematic of the leftist leaders in the Western Hemisphere who were "opposed to basically sound economic policies, want to go back to Cold War socialism ... want to turn back the clock on the democratic progress that's been made in the hemisphere."

The Venezuelan government fired back on Wednesday saying that it "has freely and democratically chosen its Socialist destiny, is obliged to remind the representative of the Canadian government, that it has been thanks to this Bolivarian Revolution that our future as an independent and sovereign country appears more radiant and promising than ever, by virtue of the legacy of our historic leader, the Commander President Hugo Chavez Frias."

The statement from Caracas affirmed a commitment to "direct itself freely and with sovereignty towards Bolivarian Socialism and recognizes it as the way toward a future of well-being, that will secure the greatest amount of happiness for everyone."

Chavez was a vocal opponent of the free market economics of Canada and the United States.

He led a leftist revival across Latin America that posed a direct challenge to U.S. influence in the region.

While Chavez introduced social programs that helped feed and house his people during his 14 years in power, his economy has sputtered.

Though Venezuela is an oil rich country, it lacks the capital to maximize its oil output and has been wracked by inflation.

Farewell to 'commander'
Hundreds of thousands of tearful supporters carried their dead president's coffin through streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an epic farewell to their iconic president known simply as "our commander."

One of Chavez's closest socialist allies, Bolivian President Evo Morales, choked back tears and declared: "Chavez is more alive than ever."

Harper's remarks echoed those of the Obama administration in Washington.

The White House said in a statement that Washington supported the "Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government."

"As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights," the statement read.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources CBC News
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DTN News - LAAD-2011 NEWS: Russia Aims To Expand Presence On Latin American Arms Market

DTN News - LAAD-2011 NEWS: Russia Aims To Expand Presence On Latin American Arms Market

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Ria Novosti

(NSI News Source Info)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil

- April 14, 2011:

The arms market in Latin America, especially in Brazil, show a great potential for exports of Russian weaponry, a senior Russian defense industry official said.

More than 300 types of weaponry are being showcased by Russia at the Latin America Aero and Defense 2011 (LAAD-2011) arms show in Rio de Janeiro on April 12-15.

"The arms market of Latin America is expansive and promising. Brazil holds a leading position among our partners in terms of its potential for the acquisition of [Russian] military hardware and equipment," said Sergei Goreslavsky, the head of marketing at Russian Technologies State Corporation, who leads the Russian delegation at the LAAD-2011.

In addition to the wide array of combat aircraft and helicopters, including the Sukhoi Su-35 and Su-30MK2 multirole fighters and Ka-52 Hokum B attack helicopters, Russia will focus on marketing its highly-acclaimed air defense systems, such as S-400, Tor-M2E, Buk-M2E, Tunguska-M1, Pantsyr-S1, and Igla-S.

"Modern warfare, as the recent events in Northern Africa confirmed, is conducted mainly from the air," Goreslavsky said. "That's why the purchase of advanced air defense systems offered by Russia becomes a serious consideration."

"We are hoping to gain some ground in this direction," the official added.

Russia, the world's second largest arms exporter after the United States, sold $8.6 billion worth of weaponry last year and is looking to increase its arms sales to almost $10 bln in 2011.

Rosoboronexport has established mutually beneficial arms trade ties with Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay, and Ecuador through active marketing efforts. These countries express their interest in Russian air defense systems, radars, combat aircraft and helicopters, naval equipment, and small arms.

Related News;

• Russia boosts arms sales to Latin America — Lavrov
• Russia hopes to make $9.5 bln in 2011 arms sales (Update 1)
• Russia to sell Mi-17 helicopters to Argentina
• Russia, Brazil discuss joint production of armored police cars

Multimedia

• The Pantsyr-S1 mobile short-range gun and missile air defense system
• Pantsir hits cruise missile target
• Pantsir-S anti-aircraft weapons system destroys targets automatically
• S-400 Triumf air missile defense system
• S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system
• S-400 Triumf destroys supersonic target
• The S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system in action
• Russia unveils upgraded Igla-S short-range air-defense system
• Russia’s Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Ria Novosti

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DTN News: Latin American Countries Invest In Military Might

DTN News: Latin American Countries Invest In Military Might

Source: DTN News By Roger Smith in association with Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) QUITO, Ecuador - June 19, 2010: The last time this Andean nation went to war was in 1995, when it fought Peru over a rugged stretch of mountains called the Altos de Cenepa. But that hasn't stopped Ecuador from engaging in one of the fastest military buildups in the hemisphere. From 2000 to 2009, military spending in Ecuador spiked more than 240 percent to $1.8 billion in constant dollar terms, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This nation - better known for the Galapagos Islands and its banana exports - is not alone. Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay have also been bolstering their militaries over the past several years -albeit at much slower rates - but with budgets that dwarf Ecuador's. Experts say it's too soon to talk about a regional arms race. But the trend is worrisome enough that it was the central issue of the 40th General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Peru last week. During his inaugural speech to the OAS, Peruvian President Alan Garcia chastised member nations for buying into the "war hypothesis" that only made arms manufacturers rich as it robbed social programs. "The cost of maintaining military bases in South America over the last five years has been $125 billion," he said. "With just 35 billion, we could give 10 million Latin American families drinking water, education and health care for the next 20 years." While military expenditures worldwide are up 49 percent since 2000, military spending in the Americas was up 79 percent, according to the Stockholm institute. Driving Ecuador's shopping spree is its contentious relationship with neighboring Colombia and that country's five-decade war against leftist guerrillas and drug gangs. With an annual military budget of $10 billion and U.S. military aid and support, Colombia's troubles have spilled over the border for years, sparking sporadic violence and flooding Ecuador with more than 40,000 refugees. Since 2003, Ecuador has boosted troops along the Colombian border from 7,000 to 11,000, said Fredy Rivera, a foreign relations expert and military analyst with the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences. "After we signed the peace deal with Peru in 1998, the country was hoping to scale back military spending and invest more in education and social programs," he said. Indeed, Peru has cut its military expenditures slightly since 2000. "Instead, Colombia made us vulnerable," Rivera added. Tensions only escalated when Colombian troops crossed the border in 2008 to attack a clandestine camp of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas. That raid killed the group's No. 2, but it was a diplomatic disaster. Angry that Colombia had not sought permission, Ecuador recalled its ambassador and President Rafael Correa green-lighted more than $300 million in military purchases, according to local reports. Among the items were 24 aircraft from Brazil, seven helicopters and six Israeli unmanned drones. Venezuela, too, has been on an eyebrow-raising spending spree. The same day that the OAS discussed the issue, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced he was shelling out $82 million for Chinese-made jets. The Lima Declaration, which the OAS approved at the Peru meeting, encourages members to limit arms purchases to "dedicate more resources to economic development." But the document didn't address what some in Latin America see as the most pressing issue: the U.S. military presence in Colombia. In 2009, Colombia signed a 10-year agreement that provides U.S. military access to seven bases. The United States has maintained that the installations are Colombian controlled and designed to keep a lid on the drug trade inside the country. Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and others tried to force the issue into the Declaration of Lima, OAS officials said, but they were ultimately shot down. OAS Assistant General Secretary Albert Ramdin acknowledged the military base issue was a thorny one. "This wasn't easy," he told The Miami Herald after the approval of the Declaration of Lima. "This was a very sensitive issue both from a perspective of defense and security, as from the political side."

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DTN News: Argentina, Chile Mull Joint Peacekeeping Force

DTN News: Argentina, Chile Mull Joint Peacekeeping Force Source: DTN News / UPI (NSI News Source Info) BUENOS AIRES, - April 27, 2010: Chile and Argentina will pool resources to form a joint military force for rapid response to humanitarian crises and peacekeeping missions in Latin America. The combined rapid response force, to be called Southern Cross, will be drawn from the armed forces of both countries and will comprise initially about 1,000 troops. Officials said the force will be ready for deployment before the end of the year. Analysts said the announcement of the joint force appeared to be symbolic, an expression of solidarity, as it wasn't immediately clear whether such a force could be deployed and under what mandate. A joint statement issued after the talks indicated the accord would cover Chile for shipbuilding contracts it is struggling to complete because of extensive damage to its shipyards in the Feb. 27 earthquake. A joint production deal means shipyards in Argentina could be sharing the work while Chile rebuilds its facilities. The magnitude-8.8 temblor wrecked Chilean shipyards and other infrastructure. Money set aside for economic development and poverty-reduction programs, announced by President Sebastian Pinera as part of his election campaign last year, is being channeled instead into vast reconstruction programs. Chilean reconstruction needs have opened major business opportunities for Argentine companies but the agreement signed Friday aims to cement closer military ties between the two countries and forge long-term links between the defense industries. Aviation, including design and joint manufacture of aircraft is another field the two countries explored when Chilean Defense Minister Jaime Ravinet visited his Argentine counterpart Nilda Garre in the capital. Much of Argentine moves in the defense sector are in response to the military's earnest representations to the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Short of funds and spare parts for existing equipment, the military has kept up pressure on Fernandez to deliver on promises to refurbish the military. The government's campaign for sovereignty claims on British-ruled Falkland Islands gave ammunition to the military's demands for greater efforts to modernize the armed forces. Chile's National Aeronautics Enterprise and Argentina National Airplanes Factory will look into manufacturing a training aircraft that could be deployed in both air forces, officials said. Until further notice, Argentina's government-owned Tandanor yard in Buenos Aires will service the clients of Chilean navy yards at Asmar, the world's southernmost shipyard, which was damaged in the quake. This is to satisfy a long waiting list of clients at the wrecked yard and to prevent Asmar customers from turning elsewhere. Chilean shipyards are also looking to secure Argentine help for an early return to normal operations. "Together with Argentina we will cooperate in the recovery of the Chilean shipyards," said Ravinet.

DTN News: Air Al Qaeda ~ Are Latin America's Drug Cartels Giving Al Qaeda A Lift?

DTN News: Air Al Qaeda ~ Are Latin America's Drug Cartels Giving Al Qaeda A Lift? *There is growing concerns that Al Qaeda in Africa and Latin American drug cartels are working together. Latin American cocaine flights go to Africa, en route to Europe. Are Al Qaeda members on the empty planes back to Latin America?

*Source: The Christian Science Monitor By Scott Baldauf Staff writer (NSI News Source Info) JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - January 17, 2010: It's known as the Coca Cola plane. In early November, drug traffickers landed a Boeing 727 in the Malian desert in Gao state and offloaded between 10 and 12 million tons of cocaine. Then, rather than fly it back across the Atlantic to Latin America, they simply burnt it, treating it like a used Coke can.The terrain of northern Mali is stark desert, and a haven for Islamist insurgents with close ties to Al Qaeda. Initially, investigators thought the plane had crashed in the desert on take off. A policeman patrols a market in central Timbuktu, on December 28, 2009. The area around Mali's capital has become a stronghold for a franchise of Al Qaeda, and a hub for trafficking cocaine from South America by air, which is then smuggled onto Europe. TimGaynor/Reuters/File But now, based on the fact that the plane was largely intact, many experts suspect that the drug cartels – perhaps in coordination with their Al Qaeda partners – burnt the plane deliberately. “That shows you the strength of the drug cartels, and how much money they have,” says Rinaldo Depagne, a West Africa expert at the International Crisis Group in Dakar, Senegal. “It’s like a plastic [Coca Cola] bottle to them. When you are done with it, you just throw it away.” According to UN reports, nearly 60 percent of the cocaine sold in Europe transits through weak West African states such as Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Guinea Bissau – a flow of cash and contraband that undermines the credibility of each country’s ability to govern itself. As many of these same countries are now becoming a haven for a shadowy group calling itself Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), there are growing concerns that Islamist radicals and Latin American drug cartels may be working together, both to enrich themselves and to weaken the law enforcement capability of those West African states. “At this point Al Qaeda in the Maghreb seems to be nothing more than just facilitators, but more and more we see evidence of them working together,” says an official for the US military at the Africom command center in Stuttgart, speaking on background. But it is safe to assume, the official adds, that Al Qaeda “is profiting from the drug trafficking trade going through its areas” of the Sahara. A 2008 Department of Homeland Security report, obtained by Reuters, warned of a growing fleet of rogue aircraft – at least 10 aircraft including executive jets, twin-engine turboprops, and aging Boeing 727s, crisscrossing the Atlantic. The DEA also told Reuters that all aircraft seized in West Africa had departed Venezuela. When it comes to traffickers use of planes between West Africa and Latin America, US military experts say there is a clear potential threat to American security. “We know what those planes are carrying across the Atlantic to Africa. But what goes back [on those planes] to [Latin] American shores?” says one US military official. “You know what the condition of the [US] southern borders are. You see the beginning of a process of thought.” Al Qaeda funded by drug protection money? If Al Qaeda is getting into the drug trade, it would not be the first terrorist organization to do so. Through much of the 1990s and 2000s, the Colombian leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has largely funded its 40-year insurgency through kidnapping and cocaine production. The Taliban were also thought to have turned to the opium trade in order to finance its own buildup of arms in the southern part of Afghanistan.

The motives of Al Qaeda would seem to be very different from those of the drug traffickers. Al Qaeda is an insurgent group fighting for a political goal, perhaps to defend its land or to impose its ideology. Drug traffickers are merely in it for money. But in the West African Sahara, there's growing evidence that the two have found common cause in using the vast unpatrolled desert areas for transporting drugs up north to Europe, and as bases for military operations and training. “Terrorists are looking at an ideology, they are fighting for their land,” says another US military official at Africom. “Traffickers don’t have an allegiance to an area, they change their routes, they change their methods, far faster than the law enforcement in a country can keep up with.” Latin American cartels have been smuggling drugs to Europe via Africa since the 1990s. But For West African nations, keeping up with the traffickers and now the insurgents may seem an impossible task. In 2006, a UN report found that the annual value of smuggled cocaine through West Africa is more than twice the gross domestic product of Guinea Bissau. US military trainers help out Yet, confronting the traffickers and the insurgents is precisely what the US military hopes these nations will do in the very near future. In the past two years, American military trainers have increased their visits to West Africa, and conducted joint training exercises under Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans-Sahel Initiative. On land, US Army trainers – many of them Special Forces commandos – train African soldiers in counterinsurgency methods, and the US government has begun to provide the army of Mali, Niger, and Mauritania with basic arms and equipment, something these nations can ill-afford to buy on their own.In addition, US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents have ramped up their efforts in West Africa, trying to help nations with weak law enforcement capabilities to rein in drug traffickers. Last month, three suspects from Mali were extradited from Ghana to the United States to face charges of offering Al Qaeda protection to move cocaine from West Africa, through the Sahara, and up to Spain. The three suspects, Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure, and Idriss Abelrahman, told DEA informants that they were members of Al Qaeda’s North African branch, and they could protect drug shipments at a fee of $4,200 per kilo. Given the scale of what drug traffickers are willing to pay – and what Al Qaeda apparently earns for its part of the business – the challenge of stopping the drug trade through West Africa will be immense, say analysts. It is one thing for the US military to train a man to fight an insurgent. It is quite another thing to put that man out in the field, earning little pay, where drug traffickers or radical Islamists can offer them bribes or other incentives to look the other way when it suits them.“These traffickers are shipping huge amounts of cocaine so they have lots of money,” says Depagne. “This is a huge threat for weak states of West Africa. When you compare the money of a drug cartel to the budget of Mauritania, or to the salary of a policeman in Niger – who receives less than $200 a month – it’s easy to see what will happen.” As for Al Qaeda, “if they manage to get that kind of money, it will put them on another level,” says Depagne. “I don’t know if you can find any evidence proving a link between Al Qaeda and the drug traffickers, unless you are CIA. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why they would want to work together. To do terrorism, you need money, and what are you going to do in the deserts of Mali to make money. You take money where it is. You work with the drug traffickers.”

Related Stories

1) Al Qaeda rises in West Africa

2) Blog: Al Qaeda-linked militant group in Mali executes British hostage

3) Mali moves music festival as tourism threatened by Al Qaeda threat

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DTN News: France Says Brazil Jet Deal Worth 4.5 to 5.0 Billion Euros

DTN News: France Says Brazil Jet Deal Worth 4.5 to 5.0 Billion Euros *Brazil to assemble French fighters, could sell to Latin America ~ Foreign Minister Celso Amorim *Source: DTN News / Reuters (NSI News Source Info) BRASILIA, Brazil - September 8, 2009: The Rafale contract between France and Brazil would be worth 4.5 to 5.0 billion euros (3.9 to 4.4 billion pounds) and delivery would begin in 2013, a source in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said on Monday. The building of the French planes would gradually be transferred to Brazil, the source said. (Image: Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engined delta-wing highly agile multi-role 4.5th-generation jet fighter aircraft) In exchange, France has agreed to buy around a dozen KC-390 military cargo planes, made by Brazil's Embraer . That contract is worth around 500 million euros, the source said. Brazil would assemble Rafale fighter jets under an imminent deal with France, and could sell them to other Latin American nations, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Monday. His comments came after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Brazil had started talks to acquire 36 Rafale combat planes in a deal worth billions of dollars.

DTN News: U.S. SouthCom Head Warns Of Iranian Influence In Region

DTN News: U.S. SouthCom Head Warns Of Iranian Influence In Region

*Sources: DTN News / Defense Media

(NSI News Source Info) MIAMI - June 26, 2009: Iran's growing influence in Latin America is a "potential risk" to the region, the newly-appointed head of the U.S. Southern Command has warned. U.S. Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, who took charge of U.S. military operations in 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean on June 25, expressed "real concern" about the Islamic Republic's links with "extremist organizations" in the region. "The real concern is not a nation-to-nation interaction, it is the connection that Iran has with extremist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, and the potential risk that that could bring to this region," Fraser told journalists ahead of taking up the post. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has forged close ties with several leftist Latin American leaders in recent years, most notably Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Raul Castro. Commenting on Iran's ties to extremist groups in the region, Fraser said: "It is a concern, and it is an issue we will continue to monitor for any increasing activity." He cited Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which has links to Iran and is accused of being behind a suicide bombing that killed 200 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed more than 20 people. The group has denied playing a role in those attacks and the bombing of Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires. Fraser, who was deputy commander at U.S. Pacific Command, said the illicit trade in arms drugs and people was worrying, and indicated it would be the focus of his work. "The major concern is the illicit trafficking and the impact that that is having in the security and the stability, especially through the northern part of South America through Central America and the Caribbean, and through Mexico and the United States." He added the U.S. needed to ensure links between narcoterrorism and illicit trafficking do not become more pronounced. Fraser played down talk of a conventional threat in the hemisphere, but said Venezuela's military stance was concerning. "I'm concern with the military buildup in Venezuela because I don't understand the threat that they see," he said. "I don't see a conventional military threat in the region. So I don't see why they see a need to build their military to the point that they are pursuing." Fraser, who lived in Colombia for three years as a teenager, said Southern Command would continue to help that country combat leftist guerillas like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - the FARC - and narcoterrorist groups. "The FARC is not defeated and we need to continued that effort. That's been a focus for a very specific reason," he said. "But Southern Command has been engaged with all the militaries within the region, with the exception of Cuba," he continued. "My intent is not to focus on one nation or the other because it is together that we build that capacity." Fraser is the first Air Force officer to take the helm of the Southern Command. He replaces U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, who has been tapped to become NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.