The Washington Post
SANTIAGO, Chile — Despite objections at home and abroad, the Chilean military has reached a preliminary agreement with Lockheed Martin to buy 10 latest-generation F-16 fighter jets in the most significant U.S. weapons sale to Latin America in almost two decades.
Sources close to the negotiations said they expect a letter of agreement to be signed by President Ricardo Lagos within 60 days, essentially closing a $637 million deal that some analysts called a delicate test of Lagos’ presidency.
For Lagos, the first Socialist president here since Salvador Allende was ousted by Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s coup in 1973, the deal would represent an important thaw in relations with Chilean generals, who were critical of recent efforts to put Pinochet on trial here. But critics say it may also spark a new Latin American arms race while essentially upgrading a military that has never been purged since Pinochet’s ruthless 17-year rule ended in 1990.
Neighboring Peru has expressed concern that the sale represents an unnecessary, even threatening, military buildup. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil has appealed for Chile to postpone the purchase. But more troubling for Lagos is that public support for the deal at home appears to be low. Many Chileans, analysts said, view the purchase as too costly, especially at a time when the nation is feeling the pinch of a global economic slowdown.
To make the contract more palatable, the military agreed to put off its request for two Boeing KC-135A tankers that were initially part of the package, shaving $78 million off the price tag.
Military officials here have sought to modernize their aging air force fleet since the mid-1990s. Advocates for the purchase say that Chile is merely trying to catch up with its neighbors. Most of its fleet of French-made Mirage and U.S.-made A-37 Dragonfly jets is more than 20 years old.
Chileans entered into talks with Lockheed Martin in 1997. That was the year the Clinton administration, arguing that U.S. companies should be allowed to compete for the contract against European rivals, broke with a longstanding U.S. policy prohibiting advanced weapons sales to Latin America.
The Bush administration backed the decision, and Chile received final permission from the Pentagon and Congress in June, leading to a conclusion of negotiations this month, sources said. The fighters, F-16C/D jets with modern targeting and radar, would be the most sophisticated military aircraft ever sold by the United States to a Latin American nation, analysts said.
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