Russian missile Venezuela worried US - WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON: The United States tried to stop delivery of Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009 amid concerns it could pass them on to Marxist guerrillas in Colombia or Mexican drug gangs, The Washington Post said on Sunday, citing diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks.Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez heads a strongly anti-American government, received at least 1,800 of the SA- 24shoulder -fired missiles from Russia, the Post said, citing U.N. arms control data.

Secret U.S. cables said Washington was concerned about the acquisition by Caracas of Russian arms, including attack helicopters, Sukhoi fighter jets and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, the newspaper reported.

It quoted a U.S. State Department cable on Aug. 10, 2009 to embassies in Europe and South America as saying Russian arms sales to Venezuela totalled "over $5 billion last year and growing." Concern about Spanish plans to sell aircraft and patrol boats to Venezuela were also cited in the cable.

Russia reported to the U.N. Register of Conventional Arms earlier this year the purchase totalled 1,800 missiles, the Post said.

U.S. Air Force General Douglas Fraser said publicly this year Venezuela could be buying as many as 2,400 of the missiles, the newspaper said. A missile expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, Matt Schroeder, told the Post the Russian missiles are among the world's most sophisticated and can bring down aircraft from 19,000 feet (5,790 metres). "It's the largest recorded transfer in the U.N. arms registry database in five years, at least. There's no state in Latin America of greater concern regarding leakage that has purchased so many missiles," Schroeder was quoted as saying, in an apparent reference to reports of Venezuelan arms flowing to Colombian guerrillas.