Warns MP Juvenal Ordóñez
As Chile buys more weapons, Peruvian government duped into “separate channel negotiations”
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Peruvian MP Juvenal Ordóñez, Chairman of the Subcomission to Monitor the Peruvian Case to the ICJ, angrily repudiated the intended Chilean purchase of military hardware (self-propelled howitzers, radar equipment and helicopters) in the USA and Russia for $ 275 million.
He said that these acquisitions come after the purchase of eighteen F-16s in Holland and show that Chile is in an uncontrolled arms race that is drawing down money necessary to make up for the current economic crisis.
He also criticised the fact that the Peruvian government and the Foreign Ministry do nothig to stop the arms race initiated by Chile and have no integral strategy to counter this threat--on the contrary, says he, they continue to believe in a “separate-channels” policy (ie, Chile robs Peru of land and sea and at the same time Chilean inverstments in Peru thrive) that only worsens the economic asymmetry in the Chile-Peru relationship (Chilean inverstments in Peru amount to 5000 million dollars, whereas Peruvian inversions in Chile are 100 million dollars, mostly in small, family businesses).
In a show of worrying naivety Mr Ordóñez announced he would call on the Peruvian government to request the USA administration to keep from selling any weapons to Chile. He says that in spite of the fact Chile is a world-renowned criminal country, very good at stripping its neighbours (Bolivia and Peru) of their lands.
Mr Ordóñez, Congressman for Tacna, Peru’s southernmost city, reiterated his bid to develop an international campaign aimed at stopping the arms race Chile and other Latin American countries are engaged in, so that big amounts of money can be devoted to fight poverty and the global economic and financial crisis. He also said that in the coming days he shall summon an extraordinary meeting of the Subcomission he presides over, in order to analyse the goals and consequences of the weapons acquisitions Chile is embarked on.
We have to point out that Chile is about to buy 24 heavy guns, artillery counter_battery radar units, artillery-support vehicles and plenty of shells. Two new reinforced brigades shall be equipped with this hardware. Besides, Chile is intent on buying twelve tracked self-propelled 155 mm M109 A5 howitzers, and another twelve M109 A3 howitzers.
Chile’s disproportionate hoarding of military equipment is a logical consequence of its heavy investments’ involvement in Peru--Chilean enterprises in Peru are a lethal Trojan Horse that can only attract danger (military agression by a country with a vast expertise in robbing its neighbours’ territories). The Chilean thugs are honing their knives.
