Bloggings by boz

President Lula:

"Venezuela is a country with huge amounts of oil and natural gas, and Chavez was the victim of a coup, so it's normal that he is getting prepared"

Defense Minister Jobim:

"Brazil is not a Venezuela, buying in the world's arms supermarket...We're not on a shopping spree. We're on a spree to boost national capacity."

These two quotes from this week show Brazil's dual position on Venezuela. On one hand, Brazil agrees that Venezuela has legitimate defense needs and a right to modernize its military. On the other hand, Brazil thinks Venezuela is making some dumb decisions on the equipment it is buying, focusing more on the short term political and media impact of the purchases rather than the long term technical capabilities that Venezuela needs.

In the increasing discussion of Latin America's arms purchases, Brazil really, really doesn't want their military modernization efforts to be placed in the same category as Venezuela's "shopping spree." It's for this reason Brazil rejects the regional "arms race" storyline. Brazil views its own military purchases as fitting into their multi-decade national defense strategy, not in response to any short-term spats in Latin America. They'll defend Venezuela's sovereign right to buy weapons, but they want the world to know that Brazil is in a separate and more responsible category than their spendthrift neighbor to the north.