I mean, why would Chavez be calling for FARC to end their armed struggle against Colombia… one day after the Colombians caught Venezuelan military personnel trying to smuggle 40,000 rounds of ammunition into Colombia? They couldn’t possibly be related…
Some backstory: Venezuela’s military recently converted from rifles that fire NATO 5.56×45mm ammunition to an updated, Russian-made version of the AK-47 that fires 7.62×39mm ammunition – making them the only nation in the Americas to standardize on this cartridge. At the time the purchase was announced (last year? two years ago? feeling too lazy to Google…), some analysts speculated that the primary reason for the conversion wasn’t to give the finger to the US – it was to make covertly arming FARC easier, since they primarily use AK-47 variants.
Posted by protected static in politics