The right to purchase, manufacture, export, import and preserve small and light arms to meet the needs of security and defense was claimed Tuesday at the United Nations (UN).

The comments of Venezuelan Ambassador to UN Francisco Arias Cárdenas made clear reference to the purchase of Russian assault rifles by the Government of President Hugo Chávez.

During his appearance at the General Assembly in the context of the conference to review the Action Plan to remove illicit trade of light weapons, Arias claimed that fight against illegal traffic "should not affect that legitimate right of states." The conference, he underscored, "deals with illegal traffic, instead of legal trade."

The diplomat insisted on saying that traffic is, above all, the responsibility of countries where there are manufactures of such weapons. Therefore, it is important for the states to implement an international instrument that allows for identification and tracking of illegal weapons. He lamented that the instrument endorsed by the UN General Assembly last December was not legally binding.

Arias advocated setting controls to label arms from the very moment of manufacture. "Ammunition is a substantial part of the problem," he noted, and expected the issue to be tackled in the UN context.

He listed the progress made since 2001. "In Venezuela, any unlabelled small weapon is seized and destroyed publicly." In his opinion, 66,529 weapons have been destroyed.