May 2011, FN Herstal weapons demonstration in Venezuela

image 1 : FN F2000 Tactical TR with Aimpoint CompM4 (a 7.62x51mm NATO Minimi can be seen on the ground as well)

image 2 : FN Minimi TR machine gun (fixed buttstock)

image 3 : Several FN Herstal weapons: Five-seveN pistols (tactical models), Hi-Power MKIII pistol, FN303 launcher, Minimi machine gun, F2000 assault rifle, P90 sub-machine gun.

This information will certainly ask for a deeper investigation but I wanted to publish it here already. This blog is intended to show some “work-in-progress”, isn’t it? Of course, one must be careful with this kind of information. And I couldn’t independently verify it yet.

The pictures and the information come from, according to several websites, the General Direction of Arms and Explosivs (DAEX) of Venezuela. Published on May 26, 2011, the information states that, on May 19, DAEX welcomed, in its ‘Polygon and National Liberator Shooting Range’ facilities, a FN Herstal delegation that came to demonstrate its weapons.

In the Belgian delegation were: Jean-Paul Warnimont, Ambassador of Belgium in Venezuela ; Michel Thys, Sales Director for FN Herstal in Latin America and FN Herstal representative in Venezuela ; and two FN Herstal instructors: Enio Luciano Manfride and Giuseppe Librici (very interesting references can be found on the latter).

Those two instructors were in charge of the weapons demonstration. They used several FN Herstal weapons such as the FN F2000, the P90, the Five-seveN, the Browning MK3, the Minimi and the FN303.

Several Venezuelan Armed Forces and National Police representatives attended the demonstration and were able to manipulate and fire the weapons.

My Spanish is less than basic. If you find some mistakes in comparison with the original text, please notify me (damien (dot) spleeters (at) gmail (dot) com).

Such a demonstration is just what it is: a demonstration. If it leads to a contract, the details will be hard to verify because of the lack of transparency in the whole sector.

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Updated on January 10: the F2000 on the first image was reportedly equipped with an ACOG, that was not correct. More details were also added in the descriptions of the pictures. h/t Nic Jenzen-Jones. Thanks to An Vranckx as well for clarifications.