Boston Globe: Chavez military moves eyed

[Eugene]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/07/17/chavez_military_moves_eyed/

Chavez military moves eyed

US, other critics fear Venezuelan leader's intent

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff | July 17, 2005

CARACAS -- President Hugo Chavez's weapons deals with Russia, his
curbs on military cooperation with the United States, and his plans
to train as many as 2 million Venezuelan civilians to repel a
possible invasion by an ''imperialist" superpower have the United
States and his domestic critics worried about what the leftist
former military officer is up to.

Chavez insists that the moves are purely defensive, born of an
overdue need to update obsolete military hardware and protect his
country from nations that might want to take control of South
America's largest petroleum- producing state.

His domestic opponents scoff at the idea that Washington would ever
invade Venezuela, and charge that Chavez's true intention is to arm
a huge cadre of loyal reservists who would protect him against any
internal uprising and to promote himself as a militarized
counterweight to US influence in Latin America.

Even more troubling, say his detractors in Washington, is that as
Chavez grows closer to his major ally, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, his
arms purchases and indoctrination of civilian militias could be part
of a strategy to restructure Venezuelan democracy in the image of
Cuban-style militarized socialism and foment leftist revolutions
throughout the continent.

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