MEXICO CITY, September 21 (TASS) – Venezuela will buy at least 12 new Su fighters for its armed forces from Russia, the South American country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, said Sunday.
Maduro spoke at the Libertador Air Base in the state of Aragua, where he paid tribute to the memory of two pilots of a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter that crashed September 17 near the border with Colombia.
“I will talk to President Vladimir Putin to bring here at least 12 new Sus and replace the one that was lost. We will fight drug trafficking and defend our country,” he said.
According to Venezuela’s Defense Ministry, the crashed Su-30 fighter flew to intercept a vessel that was flying toward Colombia. It was presumably a light aircraft belonging to drug mafia. The causes of the air crash are unknown yet.