Venezuela to buy Russian fighter jets

Venezuela's Chavez calls Bush administration a 'mafia, announces plan to buy Russian military planes

Published on 2006-05-25 10:28 (KST)

President Hugo Chavez compared U.S. President George W. Bush to the infamous mobster Al Capone on Wednesday, and said Venezuela will buy Russian fighter jets because the U.S. has blocked sales of replacement parts for its military planes.

Chavez took sharp issue with Bush's remarks this week about an ''erosion of democracy'' in Venezuela, and also criticized a U.S. move to curtail arms sales after Washington said the South American nation was failing to cooperate in counterterrorism efforts.

''The one that supports terrorism is the U.S. government,'' Chavez said, calling Bush the ''biggest tyrant in history'' and sayingVenezuela is becoming more democratic -- not less.

''It's a mafia that governs the United States, a true mafia that is threatening the world,'' Chavez said, adding that the long-dead Chicago crime boss ''Al Capone is like a baby'' compared to Bush.

Chavez said his military has been able to maintain its U.S.-made Hercules transport planes only with great effort.

''We can't maintain them anymore. Why? Because the parts are American,'' he said. ''Now what am I going to do? Buy some Antonovs from Russia -- modern transport planes.'' Chavez didn't say how many planes, but he has previously said Venezuela is considering buying Sukhoi Su-30 and Su-35 fighter jets to replace the country's aging fleet of U.S.-made F-16s -- for which the U.S. had stopped selling him upgrades.

Venezuela also had planned to buy Super Tucano planes from Brazil, but Washington prevented the sale by making clear it would not approve any sale of U.S.-made parts on the small training and combat aircraft.The Venezuelan leader also compared U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ''a broken record'' for repeatedly warning that he poses a threat to democracy in Venezuela, and said Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was ''a madman'' for signing a free trade pact with Washington.

Chavez criticized the U.S. for not extraditing Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative who is wanted in Venezuela on charges of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane that killed 73 people.

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