Spend money on maths books, not on this

The Chávez government has spent many billions in importing weapons, many more than what the official defence budget might indicate. Most of the money comes from FONDEN, the Fund for Endogenous Development, probably one of the worst misnomers in Venezuela's history. The country was in 2011 the seventh most important weapons importing countries on Earth.

The Caudillo has often spoken about "asymmetric war", but the vast majority of expenses has been for big weaponry, items like tanks and planes. Against whom can they be used? Against US Americans "invading Bolivar's Fatherland"? Very unlikely. They are most likely used not against but for the wallets of some generals and industrialists

Anything else is secondary. And that's how the little soldiers are very badly trained and how it really doesn't matter what kind of quality control and maintenance measures are taken.

And that's why military planes are falling down so often in Venezuela. This was one of the latest, while the military caste was celebrating a bloody coup - the second one- it carried out in 1992 using as excuse another bloody coup it had carried out three years earlier.