Venezuela Tops Latin America in Military Spending Cuts, Slashes Arms Budget by 34%

[eridani]

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11343

Caracas, April 16, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) - According to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Venezuela reduced its military budget by 34 percent in 2014, leading the the region in arms spending cuts.

Venezuela is followed by Uruguay, which decreased its military spending by 11 percent over the past year.

In contrast, United States political allies Paraguay and Mexico led the region in upping military spending, raising their military budgets by 13 and 11 percent, respectively.

Brazil, which is the largest arms spender in Latin America and the tenth largest in the world, cut its military budget by 1.7 percent due to economic difficulties.

The Americas remains the region with the highest military spending, a fact undoubtedly attributable to the presence of the United States, which, despite a modest budget cut of 6.5 percent, retains its spot as the world's top arms spender.

With an annual military budget of $610 billion, the US accounts for one-third of global spending, amounting to more than triple the budget of the second highest spender, China.

[hack89]

1. With a collapsing economy and falling revenue

it is not like they had a choice in the matter.

[eridani]

3. Of course they have a choice. They could act like our government and say

--fuck the population. They aren't important and the military is. That, after all, is also how Venezuela was run before Chavez.

[hack89]

4. Military spending sky rocketed under Chavez

Last edited Wed Apr 22, 2015, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)

The price for no military coups was lots of shiny new weapons and hefty salary increases.

Besides, Chavez was just another cadelouo with military roots - of course he was going to lavish lots of goodies on the military.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Chavez had US trolls howling every time he made a purchase of any hardware.

Here's one chart regarding his military spending in 2007-2008, when the DU trolls were chewing the drapery. DU'er Dipsydoodle was kind enough to throw some light on just how much of his budget WAS being piled into military expenditures:

[center][/center]
Many of us are also very aware that when George W. Bush stole the Presidency, he opted to bar all sales of replacement parts for military aircraft, etc. already sold to Venezuela, so Venezuela had NO WAY to repair its aircraft, and started having to replace its supply. That was responsible for much of the budget which was spent on military supplies.

Still, clearly, the bizarre whoppers keep circulating, even after he died.

[hack89]

6. I was just pointing out that just like the U.S.

he lavished significant amounts of money on the military. And the present cuts are from pure fiscal necessity and not some altruistic desire to help the poor.

Of course all that military spending was a waste - the biggest threat to the country turned out to be their inability to run an economy and not some foreign military power.

[Judi Lynn]

2. And our military complex demands more than 3 times the amount of the Chinese. Odd, isn't it?

That's real food for thought.

When Chavez was the elected President fascists mocked him for increasing the military budget, claiming he was taking food from the mouths of starving children (whom the fascist oligarchy had been happy to ignore when they were in power) to spend on aggressive ambition.

Of course they have a vicious response no matter what the news, when the country is headed by a leftist.