The Bush administration is banning arms sales from
the United States to Venezuela, America's fifth-largest foreign source for oil,
because of what it says is a lack of support by President Hugo Chavez's
government for counterterror activities.
Military sales to Venezuela are relatively small, comprising mainly spare
parts for warplanes, the U.S. action signaled Monday further deterioration in
U.S. relations with Venezuela. Still, Chavez shrugged it off and said he did not
plan to retaliate.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday the United States was
worried about Venezuela's close relations with Iran and Cuba, both of which are
on the department's list of state sponsors of terror.
"If you have a reasonable or rational expectation that somehow information
that you share with them might make its way to just the groups that you're
trying to combat, that's certainly negative," McCormack said.
He said the United States is also concerned about Venezuela's ties with two
leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN. Both have been
designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States.
Chavez, on a visit to London, dismissed the U.S. move as irrelevant. "This
doesn't matter to us at all," he told The Associated Press. He pledged efforts
to find a solution to the problem.
Labeling the United States an "irrational empire," Chavez said it has a
"great capacity to do harm to the countries of the world." Chavez previously has
called President George W. Bush a terrorist and has accused the United States of
plotting to overthrow him.
Earlier, at a London news conference, Chavez rejected U.S. claims that Iran's
nuclear program is aimed at producing a nuclear bomb. "I don't believe that the
United States or anyone else has the right ... to prohibit that a country have
nuclear energy," he said.
The arms sale ban affects U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense
articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items,
said Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman.
State Department figures show Venezuelan purchases of U.S. defense equipment
in 2005 came to $33.9 million (euro26.4 million), of which $30.5 million
(euro23.8 million) was for C-130 cargo plane spare parts. It was not clear
whether such purchases will be barred under the new rules.
The State Department has expressed concern in the past about what it contends
is an arms buildup by Venezuela, including the purchase of 100,000 rifles from
Russia.
The department took note Monday of Venezuela's "multibillion-dollar arms
acquisition program."
As far as U.S. sales are concerned, John Pike, director of the Virginia-based
defense think tank globalsecurity.org, said the primary impact would be the
cutoff of spare parts for the country's U.S.-made aircraft, which include F-5
Freedom Fighters, F-16 Falcons, cargo planes and helicopters.
Venezuela's air force has 277 aircraft, of which 177 are U.S.-made.
Significant numbers of U.S.-made aircraft are in Venezuela's army and navy, too,
Pike said.
Venezuela has accused the United States of pursuing a double standard on
terrorism. It points to the U.S. refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, who
is wanted in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane.
Posada, an anti-Castro Cuban, has denied involvement in the bombing, which
killed 73 people. He has been detained for the past year in Texas for illegally
entering the country.
Thomas Shannon, who heads the State Department's Latin America bureau, said
the administration had concluded that it could not tell Congress that Venezuela
was cooperating in counterterror activities in any meaningful way.
"This was a step we took with great reluctance," Shannon said in response to
a question during an appearance at George Washington University.
He also noted that the administration already had "decertified" Venezuela for
lack of cooperation in combating drug trafficking. "We are now at the same point
concerning terrorism," Shannon said.
Antoine Halff, an oil analyst at Fimat USA in New York, said it was too soon
to determine how the oil market would react, though he anticipated a possible
short-term increase in oil prices. He added that the United States has ample
supplies at the moment, and any potential retaliatory action by Venezuela would
be tempered by the fact that global demand appears to be weakening.
Indeed, crude-oil futures declined more than 3 percent
Monday, falling below $70 (euro54.58) a barrel, amid signs that high prices were
slowing consumption in the United States.
