Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday denounced an attempt
by the United States to block Spain from selling 12 military planes
equipped with US parts to Venezuela.
Washington's refusal to allow Venezuela to buy Spanish-built
planes which use some US technology is "an imperialist outrage",
Chavez told the National Assembly on Friday.
"This is an evidence of the horrible imperialism that Washington
wants to impose on the world. I must denounce once again the
imperialist outrage against the government and people of
Venezuela," Chavez said at the opening of the Assembly.
The United States refused permission, requested by Spanish
consortium EADS-CASA, to sell 12 warplanes to Venezuela, saying
that what Venezuela had said and done contributed to regional
instability.
The US embassy in Spain said that it hoped the refusal would not
harm the "excellent relations" the Bush administration has with
Spain.
Spain decided in early last November to go ahead with a plan to
sell military planes and patrol crafts with a combined value of
US$2 billion? to Venezuela despite US opposition.
The country said on Friday that it will replace US made
components with parts made elsewhere, adding that the planes will
be used for transport rather than for battling ends.
Chavez said that the Venezuelan air force was also having a
problem with buying training aircraft from Brazil. The Venezuelan
government has been trying to buy Super Tucano fighter planes made
by Brazil, but the purchase has also been blocked by Washington as
the planes contain US motor technology.
Chavez said he would go to Brasilia on Wednesday and Thursday
next week for talks with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva.
"I suppose we will work this all out," he said, adding that the
military aircraft also had civilian uses, which were well proved in
disaster relief efforts in Jamaica, Cuba, Grenada and Colombia in
2005.
(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2006)
