Chavez denies having offered Caribbean base to Russia

Mar 15, 2009, 23:12 GMT

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday denied having offered a Venezuelan island in the Caribbean as a base for the Russian Air Force.

A senior officer of the Russian Air Force said Saturday that the force was considering temporarily basing long-range bombers on Cuba or in Venezuela.

Cuba alone had four or five suitable bases, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had offered a base on La Orchila island, Major- General Anatoly Shikharev was quoted as saying.

'If the political will is there, we're ready,' he added. The Russian leadership has, however, been speaking only of 'theoretical' consideration of such a move.

However in his radio and television programme, Alo Presidente, Chavez denied that he had offered the island and complained that the Venezuelan 'oligarchy' was claiming he had offered La Orchila to Russia.

'You know that is not true, of course. I only told (Russian) President (Dmitry) Medvedev that any time the strategic Russian air force needs to stop over in Venezuela to fulfil its strategic plans, Venezuela is available to help like we did recently,' Chavez said.

He said last year two Russian bombardier planes arrived in Venezuela and spent several days at a base in the centre of the South American country.

'Two strategic long-reach planes came over, of those that go around the world. That is not new. Now the oligarchy is saying that Chavez is going to give La Orchila to the Russians. They, the bandit oligarchs, had handed over this homeland to the yankees and this homeland is now free and belongs to our people, you bastards,' Chavez said.

President Medvedev declared readiness for military cooperation with Cuba and Venezuela during his Latin America tour last year.

Late last year two Tu-160 bombers visited Venezuela at the invitation of Chavez. Moscow and Caracas both denied that this constituted a threat to the United States.

Russia has also recently sent warships on visits to Venezuela and Cuba - the latter its most important ally against the United States before the break-up of the Soviet Union 20 years ago.

Last summer the Moscow Defence Ministry denied that it planned to base bombers on Cuba after the US military spoke of Russia 'crossing the red line' if such plans materialised.