Venezuelan arms

As with Iran and Syria, Russia is supplying arms to Hugo Chavez.

Chavez will sign a $1 billion deal to buy at least 24 Russian Sukhoi-30 jets...

"I would like to thank Russia, the producer of armaments, because Russia has helped to sever the blockade that was tied by the United States around Venezuela," Chavez said in the city of Izhevsk in remarks reported in Russian by Interfax news agency.

Chavez has also got licenses to begin manufacturing Kalashnikov rifles; the infamous AK-47 preferred by terrorists everywhere.

[Chavez] visited a firing range in Izhevsk and was set to meet Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the legendary assault rifle, who lives there.Chavez said agreements would be signed to build plants in Venezuela to produce Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition. Venezuela recently bought 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles as well as Russian attack and transport helicopters.

And why does he want all these arms?

Chavez, who says he is preparing his armed forces to fend off a U.S. invasion, is set to cement growing ties with President Vladimir Putin at a Kremlin meeting on July 27.

An invasion by the US? I know for a fact there is no secret plan to invade Venezuela. If there was, I would have read about it on the front page of the New York Times. So what is he really up to?

At the closing ceremony of the first meeting of Venezuelan   and Russian businesspeople, in the Presidential Palace of   Miraflores, Caracas, Chávez stressed that bilateral technical   military cooperation is moving forward at a steady pace.

"We have received messages from Latin American, Caribbean   and even African countries asking about the production capacity   of our rifle manufacturing plant. My dear Russian friends,   I am sure you will agree, this is a platform for integration   in other fields."

An analysis by Aaron Mannes of the Counterterrorism Blog points out

Africa has been among the stops on Hugo's peregrinations and in July he called upon African leaders to collaborate with Venezuela in resisting American hegemony and better leveraging their natural resources. In particular he urged African leaders to increase the taxes they charge on oil companies....

Africa is a well-established trans-shipment point for Latin American drugs. Hezbollah is well-established in West Africa and is particularly strong in the illicit diamond trade. Considering the warm relations between their respective patrons - assuming FARC-Hezbollah collaboration in Africa is no leap of imagination.

It is difficult to escape the impression that Russia is hell-bent on supplying all of the enemies of the US with arms and assistance. Chavez is in a unique position to be the nexus of arms distribution as well as the Grand Central Station of various terrorist networks because he has contacts with both Islamists and Communist groups (such as FARC). Islamists and Communists are the oil and water of the anti-American terrorists and don't mix well, but the Chavez network is the emulsifying agent that can keep both sides supplied and focused on their common enemy: the US and the Western Democracies.

All the while sheltering Russia from the direct consequences of the direct action propagated by it's proxies.

Chavez is a useful tool in the new, and reformed, Communist Bloc.