Hugo: Gunning for Africa

By Aaron Mannes

I recently posted about the regional danger posed by the new Venezuelan license to produce Kalashnikov assault rifles. However, I underestimated the Venezuelan Colonel. I was worried about the region, but Venezuela's President has even wider ambitions. A leading Caracas daily, El Universal reports:

President Hugo Chávez warned that "as long as imperialism exists and threatens to annihilate entire peoples and impose their views, we have to open up our plant to manufacture rifles, buy (Russian-made) Sukhoi warplanes and other military equipment."

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."

Chávez once again insisted that his US counterpart George W. Bush "smells sulfur. Nobody should have doubts about it."

Africa has long been a play ground for dictators with global ambitions such as Libya's Gaddhafi. Latin America may not be a big enough stage for Chavez. 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.

This is typcial of Chavez's populist cant. However, disseminating guns in Africa is a serious matter. Africa has suffered terribly from civil strife for decades and the infusion of more firearms will only expand that continent's misery.

There are also implications for the international terrorist-criminal nexus - already strong in Latin America and Africa. 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.

As a matter of high policy, Hugo is attempting to curry favor among African states to back his bid for a UN Security Council Seat, raise oil prices, and fulfill his vision of a multi-polar world. Cheap oil and cash are one set of incentives - cheap firearms with no strings attached are another. However, with its weak states, insecure borders, and poverty Africa is an appealing base for terrorism and transnational crime. These networks could be useful to Hugo's ambitions, not only within Africa, but as a conduit for distributing weapons, cash, and influence worldwide.

Finally, I would be remiss in writing on this if I did not mention my Douglas Farah who is a leading expert on trans-national crime and terrorism in Africa and has done a great deal of excellent writing on these topics in this blog.

Cross-Posted to the TerrorBlog.

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