The US drug czar appealed to the Venezuelan government on Friday to take action against the flourishing flow of cocaine being smuggled through the country.
White House drug czar John Walters said that Venezuela has shown no willingness to cooperate with US officials against drugs.
“Cooperation’s gotten worse and the problem’s gotten bigger,” Walters said in a phone interview from Washington.
PHOTO: AP
The flow of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela has quadrupled since 2004, reaching an estimated 256 tonnes last year, he said.
“The flow is increasing as dramatically as it is because it is operating in a condition of impunity,” Walters said.
“The failure of the Venezuelan government to go after this is a failure to be serious,” he said.
Venezuelan officials have argued that they are taking drug trafficking seriously and point to large seizures in recent years. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, have suggested they would be willing to work with the US against drugs on terms of mutual respect.
But Walters said his attempt to restart cooperation has been stymied as Venezuelan officials have yet to agree to his request for a meeting, and a visa request for him and other US officials has been held up for more than a week.
“Frankly, this has gotten to the point where they’re playing games,” Walters said. “Usually drugs is beyond a lot of other political differences. We have a cooperative relationship with Cuba.”
But in Venezuela’s case, he said, “there just has been no willingness to establish that cooperation or re-establish a working relationship.”
There was no reaction from the Venezuelan government. Its top counter-drug official, Nestor Reverol, did not immediately return a call to an aide seeking comment.
US law enforcement officials have detected repeated flights by planes that take off from Venezuela, drop large loads of cocaine off the island of Hispaniola and return to Venezuela, Walters said.
Other multi-tonne loads are moving, largely by ship but also by air, from Venezuela to west Africa — a way station for shipments to Europe.
In the latest bust, Dutch and US officials said Friday that the Dutch Navy and US Coast Guard seized 4.2 tonnes of cocaine last weekend aboard a freighter in the Caribbean that had set sail from Venezuela.
The Dutch Navy said it is the largest haul of cocaine it has ever intercepted.
Walters, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, recommended a list of actions Venezuela could take to cooperate.
Drug Enforcement Agency operations have been restricted since Chavez suspended formal cooperation in August 2005, accusing the agency of being a front for espionage.
Walters said that hasn’t changed: “there has been no willingness to cooperate with DEA.”
Still, counter-drug efforts were one of the topics discussed by Venezuela’s foreign minister and US Senator Arlen Specter on Friday as the Pennsylvania Republican visited Caracas, the state-run Bolivarian News Agency reported.
Maduro said the meeting was cordial and addressed topics from the upcoming US presidential election to baseball.
Details of what was discussed about drugs were not immediately available.
Walters said the US was ready to provide Venezuela with photos of planes that have been repeatedly shuttling drugs out of Venezuela, including images showing their tail numbers.
The traffickers, Walters said, are clearly “buying people” and “compromising government authority.”
“You’ve got to go after the criminals and you’ve got to go after those who are in positions of authority and are criminals,” Walters said.
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