Chávez extends regional muscle

A third Chávez announcement, that Venezuela will purchase 100,000 Russian assault rifles and 33 military helicopters, suggested to some observers that Chávez is investing his oil wealth in a different kind of muscle. The announcement followed reports, denied by Venezuelan authorities, that Venezuela is negotiating the purchase of 50 Russian MiG-29 fighter jets.

The arms purchases generated concerns in both Washington and Colombia. An unidentified Bush administration official accompanying the president in Canada recently told reporters: "Millions of dollars are going to be spent on Russian weapons for ill-defined purposes," and added: "We shoot down MiGs."

Chávez says the arms are for protecting Venezuela's long and porous border with Colombia, which is embroiled in a 40-year civil war. In recent months, Venezuelan troops have been killed along the border by unidentified armed groups. "Venezuela is a nation which does not attack anybody," Chávez told reporters while in Cuzco, Peru, for a meeting of South American presidents. "We have a right to defend ourselves."

Mr. Rangel and others agree that the helicopters and rifles would help control the border, but say a fighter-jet purchase would be more troubling. Venezuela and Colombia also have outstanding border disputes, and Venezuela claims a huge swath of Guyana, its poor eastern neighbor. The Venezuelan arms purchase has also generated concerns about a regional arms race. Sen. Rodrigo Pardo of Colombia has called for reaching an arms control agreement with Venezuela.

"In the future, Colombia's aircraft purchases might be at least a billion dollars to confront Venezuela's challenge," he predicted.

At home, Chávez has created a number of new health and education programs that are popular with the poor, but an increasingly oil-dependent economy has left millions unemployed as other sectors have been neglected. And over the past few weeks, the National Assembly has approved a law regulating television and radio content and another expanding the supreme court to fill it with loyalists, generating criticism from some that the Chávez government is becoming "authoritarian."

Chávez's regional push is similar to an effort by Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi in the late 1990s in Africa. The Libyan leader had visions of creating a sort of United States of Africa and spent billions of dollars in oil money to garner the support of African nations. But while the governments gladly received his cash infusions and cheap oil, his vision was never realized, say analysts.

Adam Isacson, who follows Venezuela for the Center for International Policy in Washington, suggests Chávez may worry that the US might push for a censure vote against Venezuela in the Organization of American States - on human rights or democracy issues, for example, as it has many times against Cuba.

In that case, Mr. Isacson says, the small states' gratitude for cheap oil and social programs would be invaluable to him. "If it comes down to the Bush administration saying 'it's them or us,' Chávez is ensuring that someone will side with him," he says.

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