DTN News - HUGO CHAVEZ NEWS: Venezuela Protests Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement On Hugo Chavez As 'Insensitive'

Asian Defense News: DTN News - HUGO CHAVEZ NEWS: Venezuela Protests Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement On Hugo Chavez  As 'Insensitive'
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources CBC News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 7, 2013: Venezuela has sent a formal protest to the Canadian government for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "insensitive" remarks on the death of President Hugo Chavez.

Harper issued a statement that offered "condolences to the people of Venezuela," but not the family of the flamboyant 58-year-old leftist leader, who died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

A statement from a senior Venezuelan government official says a "card of protest" was sent to Ottawa after Harper expressed what he called insensitivity at a time when their country is grieving.

A wordy note from the vice-minister for North America, Claudia Salerno, said Caracas was protesting "in a blunt and categorical way, the statements issued the 5 of March 2013 by the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, as they constitute insensitive and impertinent sentiments at a time when the Venezuelan people are grieving and crying over the irreparable physical loss of the Commander President Hugo Chavez Frias."

Harper said in his short statement on Tuesday that he hopes the death of Chavez brings a more promising future for the Venezuelan people.

"At this key juncture, I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights," Harper said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Harper also said that he looked forward "to working with (Chavez's) successor and other leaders in the region to build a hemisphere that is more prosperous, secure and democratic."

'Cold War socialism'
Harper has in the past pointedly challenged the world view of the influential Venezuelan leader, notably in a lengthy one-on-one interview with the Postmedia news service nearly four years ago before he was about to meet Chavez at the Summit of the Americas.

Harper had said Chavez was emblematic of the leftist leaders in the Western Hemisphere who were "opposed to basically sound economic policies, want to go back to Cold War socialism ... want to turn back the clock on the democratic progress that's been made in the hemisphere."

The Venezuelan government fired back on Wednesday saying that it "has freely and democratically chosen its Socialist destiny, is obliged to remind the representative of the Canadian government, that it has been thanks to this Bolivarian Revolution that our future as an independent and sovereign country appears more radiant and promising than ever, by virtue of the legacy of our historic leader, the Commander President Hugo Chavez Frias."

The statement from Caracas affirmed a commitment to "direct itself freely and with sovereignty towards Bolivarian Socialism and recognizes it as the way toward a future of well-being, that will secure the greatest amount of happiness for everyone."

Chavez was a vocal opponent of the free market economics of Canada and the United States.

He led a leftist revival across Latin America that posed a direct challenge to U.S. influence in the region.

While Chavez introduced social programs that helped feed and house his people during his 14 years in power, his economy has sputtered.

Though Venezuela is an oil rich country, it lacks the capital to maximize its oil output and has been wracked by inflation.

Farewell to 'commander'
Hundreds of thousands of tearful supporters carried their dead president's coffin through streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an epic farewell to their iconic president known simply as "our commander."

One of Chavez's closest socialist allies, Bolivian President Evo Morales, choked back tears and declared: "Chavez is more alive than ever."

Harper's remarks echoed those of the Obama administration in Washington.

The White House said in a statement that Washington supported the "Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government."

"As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights," the statement read.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources CBC News
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - VENEZUELA NEWS: Venezuelan Government Manipulates Rulings Says Ex-Judge

Asian Defense News: DTN News - VENEZUELA NEWS:  Venezuelan Government Manipulates Rulings Says Ex-Judge
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
*The justice system is "very corrupt at every single level," Eladio Aponte Aponte says
*The former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice says he fears for his life
*Costa Rican official: The DEA flew Aponte Aponte to the United States this week
*Venezuelan officials accuse him of connections with an alleged drug trafficker 
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Catherine Shoichet, CNN
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 19, 2012: Venezuela's judges make decisions based on instructions from the country's government rather than the rule of law, a former top justice who fled the South American nation said.

Eladio Aponte Aponte, who was a Supreme Court justice until the Venezuelan government accused him of connections with an alleged drug trafficker last month, was flown to the United States by the Drug Enforcement Agency this week, a Costa Rican official said.

The former judge told Miami-based SOiTV that he fears for his life in his home country. And he described what he said is a corrupt justice system where officials are forced to convict political prisoners.

"I think it's very corrupt at every single level. There's a lot of manipulation. ... There's no ruling that isn't consulted. Lately, all the criminal courts have to make consultations before handing down a ruling," Aponte Aponte said.

In an interview that SOiTV said was taped outside Venezuela, the former judge said "there is no separation of powers" in the South American country.

CNN has not independently confirmed the former justice's accusations, and the Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.

Venezuelan officials removed Aponte Aponte from his post last month, accusing him of providing a government credential to a man authorities allege was one of the world's top drug lords.

Aponte Aponte, who has not confirmed or denied that accusation, left Venezuela the day he was supposed to face questioning in the Venezuelan National Assembly.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration flew him to the United States from Costa Rica early Monday morning, according to Mauricio Boraschi, vice minister of the Costa Rican presidency and head of the country's intelligence agency.

Boraschi said U.S. Embassy officials contacted the Costa Rican government after the former judge -- who had been in Costa Rica for about two weeks -- reached out to officials in Washington.

The U.S. State Department told CNN it could not comment on what it called "this law enforcement matter."

"It may have been a way of protecting himself physically and at the same time, he has something to contribute in exchange for them allowing him to become a witness protected by the United States," said Antonio Rodriguez Yturbe, a university professor in Caracas and former Venezuelan ambassador.

Aponte Aponte told SOiTV he left Venezuela disillusioned, but has since changed his perspective.

"When I finished packing all my stuff in my office, all my books, I told myself I'd never touch another law book. Justice is nothing, justice is a ball of putty. I say putty because it can be molded, for or against. I didn't want to have anything to do with the law anymore. I said I'd rather have a hotdog stand," he said. "But then, after all my reflection, and I had time to think it over, and after I saw that, that my friends have offered to help me, I now think you need to fight for justice. And that blindfolded lady has to be shown the way."

During the interview, which was posted on the SOiTV website and aired Wednesday by CNN affiliate Globovision, Aponte Aponte did not detail any conversations with U.S. authorities.

Several of his remarks contradicted previous statements by top Venezuelan officials -- including President Hugo Chavez.

When asked whether there were political prisoners in Venezuela -- something Chavez has previously denied -- Aponte Aponte said yes.

"There are people they ordered not to be released. ... In a nutshell, we had to accept the fact that they were not to be released, so the justice system turned its back on them," he said.

Asked whether he felt that the Venezuelan government had turned against him, Aponte Aponte said, "I think they did that a long time ago. I just didn't realize it."
Venezuelan officials sharply criticized Aponte Aponte last month.

A government ethics commission said the judge had committed "serious misconduct" and a "breach of public ethics" when he allegedly provided a credential to suspected drug trafficker Walid Makled.

The state-run AVN news agency said the judge had "attacked public ethics and administrative morals."

"It is important to recognize that, thanks to the functioning institutions, this became known," said Hugbel Roa, a lawmaker from Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela, according to AVN.

Makled is currently on trial in Venezuela, where he is accused of drug trafficking and killing a journalist who was investigating his family. He was extradited to Venezuela from Colombia last year.

The United States designated Makled as one of the world's most significant drug kingpins in May 2009 and had also requested his extradition.

Makled, who denies U.S. accusations of drug trafficking, said in an October interview with Venezuela's El Nacional newspaper that he paid millions of dollars to government officials and top military brass so his family's shipping business could operate at some of the nation's largest ports.

"If I am a narcotrafficker, the whole Chavez government is a narcotrafficker," he told the newspaper.

Chavez has strongly denied those accusations and stood up for his government officials.

"I am not going to pay for a crime I never committed," Aponte Aponte told SOiTV, but he said he wants to make up for the harm his rulings have caused.

Saying he felt afraid for his life and betrayed by his colleagues, the former judge said he would go back to Venezuela to face the accusations against him only if officials respect his rights.

"Knowing the system from the inside, and how it works, and how it's handled, I don't think I'd have any rights at all. Not in my case at least," he said.

CNN's Fernando del Rincon, Ana Maria Luengo-Romero and Jamie Crawford contributed to this report.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Catherine Shoichet, CNN
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Russia Revs Up Arms Exports

Asian Defense News: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Russia Revs Up Arms Exports
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Voice of Russia
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 23, 2012: In 2011,   Rosoboronexport, Russia’s main arms exporting agency, fetched $13.2 billion from its arms and military equipment sales, which exceeded the initial goal by $1.6 billion. Russia is the world’s second biggest arms exporter. By 2012, experts predict its turnover to surge even higher, surpassing the $14 billion mark.

The munitions market is one of those few spheres where Russia stands at par with Western powers. It is a considerable success, even though Russia slightly lags behind the US, whose sales revenues have reached $28-34 billion in 2011.

It’s worth noting, however, that the majority of American exports are related to US military aid programs and arms sales within NATO, where the US dominates both R&D and manufacturing. Thus, US-produced arms never fall short of demand, especially among the NATO novice members.  

Over the past five years, Russian has been heavily concentrating on diversification of its weapons export market. Since then, it has witnessed a significant surge in demand and a drop in the shares of its largest contractors. Its reach keeps broadening with time. In 2011, Russia was selling munitions to 57 countries worldwide. But the year 2012 is expected to be pivotal, with major income flows coming from a few large contractors, mainly from India. In 2012, India will receive $7.7 billion worth of Russian arms, which amounts to over 60% of the Russian arms market and almost 80% of Indian imports.

Although Russian arms exports may sag in 2013, following the conclusion of several major contracts with India, this decrease will most likely prove to be insignificant. In the upcoming years, Vietnam will increase its share in the Russian arms exports, purchasing six Project 636 submarines, Su-30 fighter jets and ordering additional “Bastion” anti-ship cruise missiles.

In the near future, Venezuela is slated to receive a large batch of Russian weapons for its army. However, this particular market can be prone to throwing surprises at Russia due to a setback in the health of Hugo Chávez and a possible power change.

Further decline in the US-Russia relations may also bring Russia closer to Iran, which is in a great need of modern military equipment. Still, this perspective may shift in case of a war in the region and ensuing defeat of Iran, which would virtually close off the Iranian market for a long time to come.

Speaking of foreign exports, we shouldn’t rule out post-Soviet countries. The 2010-2011 periods saw a major increase in arms exports to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). These figures are expected to grow further as Soviet weapons become obsolete. As an arms exporter, Russia remains the best choice of the ex-Soviet block, particularly among the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

In the case of Kazakhstan, Belarus and possibly Ukraine, Russian weapons manufacturers can expect to receive big orders for expensive military equipment like state-of-the-art jets. Kazakhstan is already importing Russian armed vehicles, such as tank support combat vehicles, and is interested in renewing its aircraft fleet. During the Centre-2011 military drills, the commandment of Kazakhstan’s Armed Forced said they were closely looking at test results of Russia’s new aircraft – MiG-35, Su-35 jets and the prototype T-50 fifth-generation fighter. Ukraine may also consider purchasing Russian aircraft, since it doesn’t manufacture fighters on its own and urgently needs to replace its 1970-80 air fleet.

All in all, the Russian arms exports hinge on the trends in the economies of these countries and any unpredicted political shifts that may turn around their cooperation with Russia.

WORLD'S LARGEST DEFENSE BUDGETS - COURTESY WIKIPEDIA

This is a list of the ten countries with the highest defence budgets for the year 2010, which is $1.22 trillion or 76% of total world expenditures. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.^[7][8] Total world spending amounted to $1.63 trillion USD in 2010.

Rank	Country	Spending ($ b.)	World Share (%)	% of GDP, 2010
—	World Total	1630	100	—
1	United States	698.0	42.8	4.8
2	China	119.0a	7.3a	2.1
3	United Kingdom	59.6	3.7	2.3
4	France	59.3	3.6	2.7
5	Russia	58.7a	3.6a	4.0
6	Japan	54.5	3.3	1.0
7	Germany	45.2	2.8	1.3
8	Saudi Arabia	45.2	2.8	10.4
9	India	41.3	2.5	2.7
10	Italy	36.0	1.8	1.7

^a SIPRI estimate

[EDIT]WORLD'S LARGEST ARMS EXPORTERS

The unit in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of US dollars at 1990s prices. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid. Ordered by descending 2000-2010 values. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.^[9]

2001-12 Rank	Supplier	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
1	United States	5908	5229	5698	6866	6700	7453	8003	6288	6658	8641	-	-
2	Russia	5896	5705	5236	6178	5134	5095	5426	5953	5575	6039
3	Germany	850	916	1713	1105	2080	2567	3194	2500	2432	2340	-	-
4	France	1297	1368	1345	2219	1724	1643	2432	1994	1865	1834	-	-
5	United Kingdom	1368	1068	741	1316	1039	855	1018	982	1022	1054	-	-
6	China	499	509	665	292	303	597	430	586	1000	1423	-	-
7	Netherlands	203	239	342	209	583	1187	1326	530	545	503	-	-
8	Sweden	880	191	526	314	538	432	366	454	383	806	-	-
9	Italy	216	426	341	212	774	502	684	417	514	627	-	-
10	Israel	407	436	368	628	368	299	438	281	807	472	-	-
11	Ukraine	700	311	442	200	290	553	728	330	320	201	-	-
12	India	7	120	150	56	108	843	590	610	998	513	-	-
13	Switzerland	193	157	181	243	246	285	301	482	255	137	-	-
14	Bulgaria	200[10]	32[11]	48[11]	16[11]	66[11]	5[11]	9[11]	286[12]	198[13]	354[14]	-	-
15	Canada	129	170	263	265	226	226	334	227	169	258	-	-
16	South Korea	165	N/A	100	29	48	94	220	80	163	95	-	-

The information is also from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute or from the national defence commissions where available and is updated at least once a year.

Sgraffito at the Lambert Sevart weapons factory, in Liege(Belgium) (early XXth Century).

Next to SIPRI there are several other sources that provide data on international transfers of arms. These include national reports by national governments about arms exports, the UN register on conventional arms and an annual publication by the US Congressional Research Servicethat includes data on arms exports to developing countries as compiled by US intelligence agencies. A list of such sources can be found at the SIPRI website. [1] Due to the different methodologies and definitions used different sources often provide significantly different data. For example, according to Statistisk sentralbyrå (Norway state statistics), Norway exports a greater value (in USD) of arms than many of the nations listed above.

Some of the differences are possibly due to deliberate over- or under-reporting by some of the sources. Governments may claim high arms exports as part of their role in marketing efforts of their national arms industry or they may claim low arms exports in order to be perceived as a responsible international actor.

As of 2008 Britain has become the worlds leading developer of arms with British company BAE Systems.[2] Defence group BAE Systems is the first company outside the U.S. to reach the top position,thanks to a deal with the Pentagon for mine-resistant vehicles to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a defence think tank, the former British Aerospace group's arms sales are ahead of American market leaders Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The report reveals BAE's U.S. subsidiary was alone responsible for 61.5 per cent of the group's arms sales and around 58.5 per cent of total group sales. This demonstrates BAE's increasing reliance on orders for conventional weapons as the U.S. cuts back on its nuclear arsenal. The British figures were also boosted by orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia.

After the success of Pakistan's major developments in the defence industry the Defence Export Promotion Organisation (D.E.P.O.) was created to promote Pakistani defence equipment to the world by inviting major and small players to the I.D.E.A.S. Exhibition, which is held annually at the Karachi expo center. In recent reports, the defence exports were worth over $500 million USD in 2006 and growing annually.

[EDIT]WORLD'S LARGEST ARMS IMPORTERS

The unit in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of US dollars. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid.

Current Rank	Importer	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
1	India	911	1242	1872	2802	2227	1036	1257	2179	1810	2116	3337
2	Australia	364	1191	647	798	505	470	682	629	380	757	1677
3	South Korea	1262	623	461	680	986	686	1650	1758	1821	1172	1131
4	Singapore	622	220	235	88	384	543	52	368	1123	1729	1078
5	United States	301	449	453	533	512	501	581	731	808	831	893
6	Algeria	418	553	237	197	272	156	308	471	1518	942	791
7	Saudi Arabia	158	397	533	592	385	332	262	613	939	1146	2580
8	Greece	710	725	491	2241	1528	389	598	1796	563	1269	703
9	People's Republic of China	2015	3366	2819	2207	3080	3511	3831	1474	1481	595	559
10	United Arab Emirates	243	186	213	695	1246	2198	2026	938	748	604	493
11	Pakistan	80	59	555	159	1161	148	185	64	115	626	787
12	Turkey	1170	553	1009	438	187	1005	422	585	578	675	468
13	Malaysia	30	26	131	135	48	51	410	546	541	1494	411
14	Norway	263	148	92	4	6	14	469	494	536	576	205
15	Indonesia	171	27	63	398	82	31	58	577	241	452	198

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Voice of Russia 
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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