Venezuelan National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, the nation’s second-most powerful government figure, on Tuesday rejected claims that he was involved in the drug trade after US news reports that he and other officials were under investigation for trafficking and money laundering.
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times outlined long-simmering accusations from the US that the governments of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, facilitated cocaine shipments.
Cabello, 52, the top-ranking target of the US probes, called them baseless accusations that were part of a campaign to destabilize socialism in Venezuela.
Photo: Reuters
“It would never occur to us to get involved in something that would hurt young people,” the No. 2 in the ruling Socialist Party told Venezuela’s parliament. “Those who today accuse me of trafficking should present one piece of proof, just one.”
Citing more than 12 people familiar with the probes, the Wall Street Journal on Monday said US federal prosecutors in New York and Miami and a US Drug Enforcement Administration unit were gathering evidence from former traffickers, defectors and people once close to top Venezuelan officials.
The paper defended its reporting after Cabello’s comments.
The New York Times on Tuesday reported that Cabello and others were under investigation by US authorities as part of an inquiry into the cocaine trade.
Venezuelan opposition leaders, who have long been making similar claims, are demanding action.
“These are grave accusations, which suggest that our country has become a bridge for drug trafficking,” opposition leader Henrique Capriles said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion