Politics
At 9:00 a.m. Russian destroyer "Admiral Chabanenko" entered La Guaira seaport, north Caracas, firing the traditional 21-gun salute to the host country, Venezuela, whose infantry replied with the same number of gun shots as a welcome greeting, but nuclear-powered battle cruiser Peter the Great was unable to dock because of its large size.

The Venezuelan government signed in 1967 the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco).

Such a convention, which was ratified in 1970 by the Venezuelan government, provides for the parties to undertake to prohibit and prevent in their territories "the testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition by any means whatsoever of any nuclear weapons, by the Parties themselves, directly or indirectly, on behalf of anyone else or in any other way" as well as "the receipt, storage, installation, deployment and any form of possession of any nuclear weapons". However, nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great is anchored in Venezuelan waters.

Demetrio Boersner, an expert in foreign affairs, makes the difference between nuclear propulsion and nuclear weapons. "I do not think that nuclear propulsion is included in the nuclear ban. This vessel does not appear to carry nuclear weapons, but only uses nuclear propulsion," he said.

Reyes Theis
EL UNIVERSAL