Followers of this blog’s Colombia/Venezuela coverage may remember the strange tale of Colombia’s attempt to purchase several dozen tanks for deployment to the Venezuelan border. The Aznar Spanish government had agreed to the sale, then the Zapatero government that replaced Aznar dumped it (after Venezuelan negotiations behind the scenes). A terrorist plot by 130 Colombian paramilitaries was foiled. Then the threatening rhetoric and threatening moves from Colombia dissipated when Uribe visited Chavez in July. But immediately after Venezuela’s August referendum that ratified Chavez in power, there was another raid in the border region and 12 Venezuelans were killed by Colombian paramilitaries. Now, we hear from Venezuelanalysis.com that Colombia is planning to purchase combat aircraft. Reporter Robin Nieto was unable to find out where the planes are to be purchased from (any guesses, anyone?) but we’ll be following the story over the coming days. Don’t expect any amelioration of the global situation anywhere except by very hard struggle.
