This idea of manufacturing AK rifles in Venezuela goes back to 2006 when Chavez was still alive and well on his way to screw up the country. I confess I had not paid attention since then, even though Venezuela did have back then a pool of specialized and trained people to manufacture quality weapons (mostly all variants of the FAL and Hi Power pistols).

They are not very specific of the reasons why the deal fell through, but the excuses are the US sanctions against Russia and that the former head of Kalashnikov was sent to prison for corruption. Both excuses sound like BS to me but who gives a damn other than Venezuela will not be able to get income selling weapons to South American cartels and other nefarious actors in South America.