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 Brazil, its Latin American neighbors and US officials may deny it, but there is an arms race going on right now in South America. As the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) points out, "large increases in military expenditure have been taking place in several countries of the region."
According to SIPRI, South America since 2000 has increased military expenditure 33% in real terms and in 2007 military outlays reached US$ 40 billion.
In the last five years Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile are the countries which most have increased military expenditure in real terms: 78%, 53% and 49% respectively. In Central America, Honduras leads with a 20% increase in the last five years followed by Mexico's 15%. .
In 2007 the Brazilian government promised a 50% hike in the Armed forces budget and is planning to purchase conventional submarines and developing nuclear submersibles. However in the same five year period, Brazil was ranked 12 in military expenditure. Top of the list is Colombia with 4% of GDP, Chile, 3.6% and Ecuador, 2.3%.
Said this, it is also true that many countries in the region had drastically cut their military budgets and salaries of soldiers are still lagging considerably behind the rest of society. Furthermore Colombia's increase can be attributed to the ongoing armed insurgency challenge, according to SIPRI.
The Stockholm think tank underscores that South America is not among the world regions which most spend in their armed forces, but Venezuela has caused alarm since it has purchased over US$ 4 billion in Russian armament.
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, who on taking office in 1999 said the country could no longer continue spending on aircrafts and tanks, earlier this month justified his long shopping list saying that Venezuela needs the arms to "defend the Bolivarian revolution" from the "United States empire of evil."
Stephen Johnson head of Hemispheric Affairs in the US Defense Department is quoted by The Miami Herald saying that "defense equipment deteriorates, become obsolete and it is clear there's an attempt to modernize the region's armed forces."
However in the case of Venezuela "there's a clear intent to project power or intimidate, the kind of gesture that can trigger in others a feeling of danger and make them spend more on arms".
This week Peru and Ecuador revealed they were spending in refurbishing and purchasing new equipment. Peru has plans to invest US$ 106 million in upgrading its MIG-29 with the purpose of "recovering the operational capability of our Armed Forces," said Defense minister Antero Flores Araoz.
Peru has a wing of 19 MIG 29 purchased from Russia and Byelorussia in the early nineties and signed an agreement with Russia for the refurbishing. However most of the work, upkeep and training "will be done in Peru by Peruvians as part of a long term plan stretching to 2011 and involving US$ 654 million."
Ecuador, which recently had border skirmishes with neighboring Colombia and was accused of allowing sanctuaries for Colombian guerrillas, announced the purchase of 24 Brazilian made Super Tucano fighters, fast boats and radars for border surveillance. The plan also includes refurbishing its wing of Israel manufactured Kfir fighter bombers.
"All our aircraft have years of service, we need to renew them and the government is committed to a significant investment in the Armed forces. This by no means is a mad arms race or nothing like it," pointed out Defence minister Miguel Carvajal.
Last March following an incursion of Colombian troops into Ecuadorian territory, Quito broke diplomatic relations with Bogota and announced the beefing up of its air power with the purchase of the 24 Brazilian Super Tucanos and six UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) plus the refurbishing of the Israeli version of the French Dassault Mirage fighter bombers.
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Yeah,, we can expect to see more of Wednesdays' events as time goes on. "The writing is on the wall" 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
how many jets does it take to build a school .buy books .
how many jets does it take to build new roads
offer health care .
columbia went across after the FARC just like they did in vensula , just trying to protect there people .
okay every body say something about it ,
BUT
no one said a thing when russia went to georiga !!!!!!!