MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez announces purchase of second batch of Chinese K-8 military planes

The K-8 versatile jet to be used for drugs trafficking

Venezuela will spend 82 million US dollars on a second batch of Chinese K-8 military training aircraft, President Hugo Chavez announced on Sunday. The Chavez regime has ordered 18 of the light attack and training planes from China and last March received the first six.

“We have approved 82 million USD for the second batch of Chinese-made K-8 jets. The aircraft are for the security and defence of the country,” the Venezuelan president said during his regular television program.

Chavez has said he wants to buy a fleet of 40 K-8s. He ordered 18 of them from China after a plan to buy similar jets from a Brazilian company fell through, apparently because they included US electrical systems. It was not immediately clear how many of the aircraft would be included in the second group, or when they would arrive.

Venezuelan officials said in March the versatile jets would be used to train local pilots and intercept drug traffickers who use the country as a stop-off point to smuggle Colombian cocaine to the United States, Europe and Africa.

Venezuela has also bought a network of Chinese radars and spent about 5 billion USD on Russian weapons, including tanks, missile systems and fighter jets, to replace F-16 planes that are rusting because of the US embargo.

Chavez said he was simply modernizing his armed forces.

“Today, China has become one of the biggest allies of Venezuela, and Venezuela is one of the biggest allies of China in the world,” he said.

Chinese companies are involved in the exploration of Venezuela's vast Orinoco heavy crude belt, and Beijing says it is also providing 20 billion US dollars of long-term financing for projects in Venezuela.