Weekly Report - 14 April 2011 (WR-11-15)

South America registered the largest regional increase in military expenditure in 2010, up 5.8% in real terms to US$63.3bn, according to a study released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The average annual increase in the region between 2001 and 2009 was 3.7%. The Sipri report said the finding was “surprising given the lack of real military threats to most states in the region, and the existence of more pressing social needs". This is a point made most forcibly by Peru's President Alan Garcí­a, who has tried over the last 18 months to win support for a five-year plan to cut arms spending in the region and devote the savings to eradicating poverty. Garcí­a has made some scarcely veiled criticism of Venezuelan arms spending and yet, ironically, Sipri's figures show that the fastest percentage increase in military expenditure in the region in 2010 was in Peru, while the biggest decrease was in Venezuela.

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