[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15365]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FIGHT POVERTY, NOT COLOMBIA

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, this weekend Venezuela's defense minister 
proudly announced the impending arrival of a large shipment of Russian 
arms. For what? Who is Venezuela planning to fight?
  General Garcia announced his purchase of 40 MI-17, MI-26, and MI-35 
military helicopters, including the MI-26, the world's largest 
helicopter which comes heavily armed and is intended, in General 
Garcia's words, ``to be deployed on Venezuela's border with Colombia.'' 
On top of this, Venezuela is expecting the arrival of over 100,000 new 
Kalashnikov AK-103 assault rifles. To shoot whom?
  Without an insurgency and no neighbor threatening her border, who are 
these weapons to be aimed at? Venezuela has millions of poor people; 
and they believe Venezuela's oil should be used to fight poverty, not 
Colombia. Our allies and the Organization of American States have the 
lead in diplomacy to keep peace in our hemisphere. It sounds like they 
should call an urgent meeting of the OAS to discuss whom Venezuela 
plans to shoot at.

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