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Corrupt Government Title: The U.S. government sold Venezuela $34 million worth of licensed military material last year WASHINGTON - Taking another jab at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the U.S. State Department has ordered his country's air force to close its purchasing office in Miami. The Venezuelan foreign ministry reacted furiously Thursday, calling the decision, relayed in a diplomatic note on Tuesday, "aggressive" and "imperialist." The Miami operation has about a dozen Venezuelan officers who oversee the purchase of military equipment and other supplies for the Venezuelan armed forces. They have until Sept. 30 to comply with the U.S. order. The State Department also ordered the closure of a Venezuelan purchasing office at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base near Dayton, Ohio. But Venezuelan officials say they voluntarily closed that office earlier this month. The leftist Chavez has been an outspoken critic of Washington, and in May, the Bush administration tightened an arms embargo on Venezuela after accusing it of failing to fully cooperate in the war on terror. The State Department alleges that the country isn't responding to U.S. requests for information on terrorism suspects. The U.S. government previously had decreed a ban on arms sales to Venezuela, but was allowing the delivery of parts that would keep Venezuelan aircraft flight-worthy. The May designation, which takes effect Oct. 1, stops all arms sales, including flight safety equipment. Jan Edmonson, a State Department spokeswoman, said the May designation also meant "it was not necessary or appropriate for the Venezuelan government to maintain the military acquisition office." Venezuela set up the office, near the Miami International Airport, in 1985, when Venezuela was considered one of Washington's closest allies in Latin America. Arguing that his country needs to diversify its sources of military hardware, Chavez already has embarked on a multibillion-dollar weapons purchasing spree that includes 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 24 modern Sukhoi fighter jets, Mi-17 helicopter transports and Mi-35 gunships from Russia and patrol gunboats from Spain. Caracas remains a top foreign supplier of oil to the United States. But relations between the two governments has deteriorated into an exchange of often-bitter accusations. The Bush administration has complained that Chavez hasn't done enough to combat human or drug trafficking and has been undermining democracies in Latin America. Chavez, who has established close ties with Iran, Cuba and Syria, says the United States was behind a 2002 coup against him. According to John Pike, director of http://Globalsecurity.org, a defense think tank based in Alexandria, Va., U.S.-supplied equipment is still widely used by the Venezuelan armed forces. Besides 22 F-16 jets, 12 of the 35 aircraft of the Venezuelan navy are U.S.-supplied craft, including Beech 200s and Cessna 210s. Venezuela also has five C-130s military transport aircraft, among other equipment. Pike said the U.S. squeeze wasn't going to "completely shut down" the Venezuelans but would force them to make expensive adjustments. He noted that Iran has been under a U.S. arms embargo for over a quarter of a century but is still flying U.S.-built F-14s using parts made at home. The U.S. government sold Venezuela $34 million worth of licensed military material last year, but on contracts that were approved at the end of 2004. In 2005, Washington approved sales of only $8.5 million, most of it going to parts for C-130 transports. Until recently, the United States continued to make deliveries.
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