SignOnSanDiego.com > News > World — Venezuelan army to help Nicaragua build highway

MANAGUA – The Venezuelan army will help Nicaragua build a road to connect the swampy Caribbean coast with the rest of the country, in the latest effort by President Hugo Chavez to bring Managua into his bloc of leftist allies.

Nicaraguan Transport Minister Pablo Fernando Martinez said in a newspaper interview published Monday that a Venezuelan general visited Nicaragua two weeks ago for talks on the plan to construct 310 miles of road at a cost of $350 million.

Martinez told the El Nuevo Diario daily that “the Venezuelan army, together with the Nicaraguan army and as far as possible the ministry” would build the road from Puerto Cabezas on the coast to the town of Rio Blanco in the interior.

Venezuela’s aid will be free, he said.

found by Sergio Gasparrini



  1. mxpwr03 says:

    “Venezuela’s aid will be free, he said.” There are no free lunches in this world. The people who will pay the cost, in this form an opportunity cost, will be the Venezuelans who would have benefited from that $350 million dollars. I would think it more advantageous for Señor Chavez to build roads, or schools, within Venezuela with this money. ¡Vivamos la revolution!

  2. ECA says:

    1. what is the army doing, anyway?
    2. they wont be doing that, or protecting the nation.
    3. It DOES help venezuela, as they are the Major drug manufactour, in S. america. Or did you know that?

  3. Mac Guy says:

    Well, the Autobahn was an idea of Hitler’s… Could Chavez be a distant relative?

  4. Mike Caddick says:

    I like this guy better the more I hear about him.
    Its amazing you americans hate him so much. I guess it smarts a bit when the leader of some pissant little country that ‘should know better’ tells you to bugger off. I guess thats the power of a totally controlled right-wing media for you though.

  5. mxpwr03 says:

    Hey Mike Caddick, would you care the elaborate on how Señor Chavez is helping his country?

  6. James Hill says:

    Is everyone in The Ban Clan a retard, or just you, Mike?

  7. Gig says:

    Think how much it would have saved us if we had just told Saddam, Hey how about we use the US Army to build you a highway?

    I’ll be real surprised if the Venz. army doesn’t take their guns along with the shovels.

  8. Named says:

    2,

    What’s wrong with drugs again? I know what’s wrong with making them profitable only for drug cartels by it’s prohibition, but what’s wrong with the drugs themselves?

  9. tim thomas says:

    WHAT!!!! why wouldnt the government put all the poor people to work instead of doing this? I dont get this at all.

  10. OmarThe Alien says:

    The Army, and their big assed guns, are there to help motivate the peasants to do the actual manual labor of building the road.

  11. TJGeezer says:

    #10 – That’s the point I was looking for and missed. A lot of people in both countries could use the work, and if Chavez wants to help tie together the region by improving transportation routes, using some of his oil surplus, it only makes sense. But why the army?

    #4 – Mike, you assume too much. A lot of people in the US grinned at the right wing’s discomfort when Castro offered doctors after Katrina and Chavez sold cut-rate heating oil to poor people in a desperately cold east coast winter. But sending an army into Nicaragua instead of funding the highway and letting people who need the work do the work – that reeks of some other agenda. Wonder if we’ll ever find out what’s really going on here.

  12. TJGeezer says:

    Pedro, does your earlier comment about Cuban military officers calling the shots in Venezuela’s army have anything to do with it? Things always look different from a distance. You’re on the ground, as they say. I’d love to see your take on this.

  13. Ron Larson says:

    hmmm…..

    I can’t help but think that Chavez wants to place some officers in the military far, far away so they don’t overthrow him. Perhaps digging ditches in Central American swamps will keep them tied down?

  14. Francisca says:

    Does anybody know why Hugo Chavez help Nicaragua so much?

  15. ECA says:

    10, 13,
    REAd back about 1 month, about Ven. Jails… If you got $5 aday, you are rich and can get better then on the OUTSIDE.

    some thing else to KNOW…
    Is that the USA gets ALOT of fuel gas from Ven. ALSO…
    NOW you know where he got about 1/2 the money..
    Brazil is the worst hit by the drugs, its the distribution site, and Off loading to other coutries.

  16. ECA says:

    17,
    closer port then Thru brazil…

  17. Erik Blazynski says:

    Chavez rocks… This is why america hates him. He is helping decrease the reliance on big american companies and wold banks.

  18. joshua says:

    I always have to laugh at the Chavez lovers…..they refuse to let ideology or facts spoil their glee. Chavez is just another in a long line of South American dictators(he lost his coup, but won election 6 years later, and now has decree powers). The only difference is he claims to be a leftist in stead of a right wing dictator(guess those are better, maybe Stalin can clear that up).

    Nicaragua just recently had elections, and Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista leftist dictator won the Presidency(but he claims he dosen’t want to be a dictator anymore). He and Chavez are buddies.

    I tend to go along with the suggestion that it’s to get the parts of the Army Chavez isn’t sure of out of the country for awhile, until he figures out how to arrest the brass that opposes him.

  19. MoparPower says:

    Must be better to have the army build roads than to fight wars.

  20. Mr. Fusion says:

    #21, Shall we laugh at all the right wing dictators and strong men too? Their abuses have been pretty funny.


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