The Venezuelan military - some maintenance issues
An interesting look from
United Press International:
Much of Venezuela's Russian arms said to be faulty
Russians arms inventories in Venezuela are blighted by widespread malfunction, breakdown and an endemic lack of operational readiness, opposition critics said.
Amid data indicating Venezuela is now Russia's largest weapons customer in Latin America, thanks largely to deals reached before former President Hugo Chavez died of cancer in March, the Venezuelan military is having to cope with useless military hardware on a large scale, El Universal reported, citing opposition critics.
There was no immediate official comment from the administration of President Nicolas Maduro. independent verification of opposition claims on the parlous state of Venezuelan military is hard to come by.
"Shadiness is the key word when referring to the information on the weapons sold to Venezuela by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's government," El Universal said.
Russia will continue military-technical cooperation with Venezuela regardless of who takes over power in the Latin American country after Chavez's death, RIA-Novosti said in March.
Throughout 2012, Chavez actively shopped for Russian tanks, helicopters and air force aircraft, Russian and Venezuelan news media reported at the time.
El Universal said the late president's orders to buy Russian weaponry have been followed. "The Bolivarian Armed Forces equipped themselves with rifles, tanks, aircraft, armored vehicles and artillery systems to such an extent that [Venezuela] became Moscow's top buyer," El Universal said, in a reference to Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution that Maduro has vowed to continue.
"Have they been appropriate purchases? Is such equipment able to operate as intended when the time comes?" El Universal asked. "It does not seem so: some alarming information has just been leaked and we have already seen helicopters fall."
You get problems like this when you confuse the cult of personality with true leadership. There is a big difference and Venezuela is so far into the weeds that they cannot see this.
Posted by DaveH at November 28, 2013 11:34 AM