Venezuela Weapons Purchases Alarm U.S.

The Bush administration has grown increasingly alarmed at a series of weapons purchases by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that senior U.S. defense officials described as a “one-man arms race” that could destabilize South America for decades.

Venezuela has confirmed that it is buying 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia next month. But Pentagon officials said the number of weapons could reach 300,000 -- for a nation whose national guard and army total 62,000.

U.S. intelligence reports conclude that the government of Chavez is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar effort to buy new warships and as many as 50 Russian attack helicopters, senior defense officials told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Chavez is discussing the purchase of 30 MIG-29 fighter jets, an official said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was traveling in South America on Wednesday, urged Chavez to reconsider the purchases.

“I can’t imagine why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47s, and I just personally hope that it doesn’t happen,” Rumsfeld told reporters here in an appearance with Brazilian Vice President Jose Alencar. “And I can’t imagine that if it did happen that it would be good for the hemisphere.”

Bernardo Alvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, defended the arms acquisitions.

In a telephone interview, he said Venezuela was buying the weapons to replace basic equipment used to outfit the Venezuelan armed forces. He said the long-planned program was a “sovereign decision,” adding that U.S. officials had not sought an explanation from his government.

“They seem to want to create confusion or suspicions about what we are doing,” he said.

Bush administration officials speculated that Venezuela had undisclosed military ambitions in the region or that it planned to “leak” weapons to leftist guerrillas, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.

The statements by Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials marked the latest salvo in a low-intensity diplomatic rivalry with Chavez.

This week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak dismissed the U.S. concerns, saying the weapons sales were for the Venezuelan military. But senior American defense officials rejected that explanation, saying the sales vastly outnumber the troops in the Venezuelan military, whom they described as well-equipped.

Regardless of Chavez’s intentions, the officials said, the arms purchases could put weapons in the hands of narcotics terrorists and other groups seeking to destabilize Latin American governments.

“They will be the curse of Latin America for 40 years if they get out,” a senior defense official said, on condition of anonymity.

According to U.S. intelligence accounts, Chavez plans to open a factory to produce ammunition suitable for AK-47s but used largely by nongovernmental militias in the region, an official said.

“That is not what the good guys in Latin America use. That is what the bad guys use. That is the ammunition of choice for drug smugglers,” he said.

Alencar declined to criticize Venezuela.

“Brazil has always defended and will continue defending the self-determination of the different peoples and nonintervention in the affairs of other countries,” he said.

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Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.