US Tries to Stop Arms Sale to Venezuela

The US moved yesterday to stop Spain completing a $2bn (£1.13bn) arms sale to one of America's bitterest critics in the Americas, Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez. State department officials informed the Spanish government that it would not give the licences needed to allow the sale of a dozen military aircraft that carry US technology. Spain vowed to press ahead with the deal regardless.

The 10 C-295 transport planes and two CN-235 patrol planes, which Venezuela has insisted would not be armed and would be used for tackling drug smuggling, were part of a deal to supply ships and planes. "In a region in need of political stability, the Venezuelan government's actions and frequent statements contribute to regional instability," the US embassy in Madrid said in a statement. "This proposed sale ... has the potential to complicate the situation."

"Despite being democratically elected, the government of President Hugo Chávez has systematically undermined democratic institutions, pressured and harassed independent media and the political opposition, and grown progressively more autocratic and antidemocratic," it added.

Mr Chávez denounced the move as evidence of Washington's "horrific imperialism". He derided President George Bush as "Mr Danger" and said he would "crash up against the force of the truth."

The decision also looks set to sour relations with Washington that have never recovered from socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's decision to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq in 2004.

The US says it is concerned that Basque separatist group Eta is active in Venezuela - though Spain's own intelligence services denied the group was there.

Spain's deputy prime minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, said Spain would press ahead with the contract. adding that substitute parts would be sourced.