CARACAS, Thursday November 24, 2005 | Update
A planned sale of military equipment by Spain to Venezuela
is not going to damage Spain-US relations, as this is a deal
"between corporations," said Thursday Spanish Foreign Affairs
Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos.
Moratinos referred himself to the possibility that the United
States denies authorization for selling Spain-made equipment
to Venezuela, as the material comprises US components.
In this sense, the Spanish diplomat explained that US could
"veto" the inclusion of a specific component, but he conceded
he did not know "whether that could prevent the execution
of the agreement."
Under the deal, Spain is to sell 12 aircrafts and eight frigates
built by Spanish consortium EADS-CASA and Navantia, with a
USD 1.8 billion investment.
US ambassador to Spain Eduardo Aguirre Wednesday started
a controversy over the Spanish sale of weaponry to Venezuela
by stating that his country expected that this operation is
not conducted "ultimately."
Moratinos stressed Thursday that the corporations involved
in the operation should determine what are their conditions
for entering into this type of deal.
He stressed that US, Spain relations are "good" and the two
countries are to continue to work together as "today nobody
can do things on his own; we need each other."
10:07 AM. DIPLOMACY. Admired by the Colombian guerrilla after his coup attempt in 1992, the then lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez Frías received financial support by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for his projects after his capture that year. This mostly explains the relationship and "debt" between the parties, as revealed by a paper of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of the United Kingdom.