Chavez: Russian Planes Can Sink 'Gringo Ships'

Fresh from his trip to Moscow, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is brandishing his new batch of freshly delivered Suhkoi fighters. According to AFP, Chavez said the Su-30s should be a deterrent to the U.S. Navy:

"Any gringo ship that sails into brown waters (river waters) will itself turn brown and go to the bottom, because they'll not get through," Chavez said.

The U.S. Navy recently reactivated the Fourth Fleet, which is responsible for patrolling the Caribbean. Chavez, in the meantime, has been bulking the military with an extended shopping spree of Russian-made arms. Chavez has repeatedly said that the arms build-up is for defensive purposes; namely to deter what he believes could be a planned U.S. military invasion.

Back in June, the Venezuelan Sukhois test fired air-to-surface missiles in an exercise called "Patria Socialista" (Socialist Motherland) 2008.