QUITO — Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced September 28 he will receive six Mirage 50 jets “in good condition” donated by Venezuela, amid concerns of a South American arms race.
“Venezuela wants to give us six Mirage jets … we are going to accept them,” Correa said in the northern town of Ibarra.
Correa added that the country was discussing the purchase of a further 12 jets from South Africa and 24 Super Tucano fighters from Brazil, as well as radar systems and helicopters.
It is just the latest sign of a military build up in South America and what the United States has warned could become an arms race.
Venezuela, led by leftist President Hugo Chavez, recently announced a $2.2 billion from Russia to buy weapons.
The purchases have come as tensions have grown between Ecuador, its Venezuelan ally and Colombia over support of leftist Colombian rebels and Bogota’s agreement to allow the United States to use Colombian military bases.
The original source of this article is DefenseNews
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]
www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the
copyright owner.
