Venezuela Plans to Buy More Russian and Chinese Arms
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Venezuela is already the largest weapons importer in South America.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Venezuela imported $349 million worth of arms from China and $1.96 billion worth of arms from Russia between 2010 and 2014.
In 2013 alone, Caracas imported $1 billion worth of military equipment from Moscow. Between 2012 and 2015, Venezuela is expected to become the world’s second largest importer of Russian weapons, Sputnik reports citing the Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade.
Since 2010, according to SIPRI trade logs, Venezuela has ordered a range of self-propelled artillery pieces and transport aircraft from China, as well as tanks. From Russia, Venezuela received surface-to-air missile systems, anti-tank missiles, self-propelled artillery, and helicopters.
Nicaragua, alongside Cuba and Venezuela, was one of only eleven countries that voted in Russia’s favor against a UN resolution which declared Crimea’s independence referendum in March 2014 invalid.
In the beginning of March 2015, the US slapped sanctions on Venezuela and declared it a “national emergency” and “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
