Orinoco II

The Orinoco II is a open-bolt sub-machine gun made in Venezuela by C.A.V.I.M. (Compañia Anonima Venezolana de Industrias Militares).

History
Resulting from a push to establish a self-sufficient arms industry, the Orinoco II was developed in 1982 in order to fill the need for a compact sub-machine gun for Military and Police use within Venezuela. It was to compete directly with the Heckler and Koch MP-5, Israeli Uzi, and to a lesser degree the Ingram MAC-10.

Basically a copy of the Uzi, the first version, the Orinoco I was a dismal failure. Poorly constructed from inadequate materials, the Orinoco I wasn't produced beyond five prototypes before the project was halted and the design changed so heavily that it resulted in the Orinoco II. By late 1982 five prototypes were built, having outsourced the production of the receiver and barrel to foreign firms with the proper metallurgical know-how. Shortly thereafter the project was abandoned as a result of the inability to reduce costs below those of equivalent weapons purchased elsewhere, as well as oversight.

Mid-2002, in a renewed bid to reduce dependency on foreign arms stemming both from multiple arms embargoes levied against Venezuela by Switzerland, Israel, Sweden, and The United States and a Nationalist fervor, current president Hugo Chavez instructed CAVIM to retake the project of the Orinoco II, along with several other "home-grown" small arms varieties including the much publicized Zamorana pistol (in actuality a CZ2000 from Slovakian firm Arms Moravia.)

Ten new prototypes were completed by 2006, several of which were publicly displayed and tested. The updated version of the Orinoco II differs from the 1982 model by the addition of a barrel shroud and increased use of polymers.

By 2007 the project appears to have been shelved once again and no further information has been made available on an already obscure weapon.