Venezuela’s Estrangement From DEA to Benefit Colombian Drug Trafficking

Text of report by Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional website on 28 July

If we review the Venezuelan press for the past two weeks, we shall find that not a day goes by without a news report appearing on drug trafficking in the country. This is a phenomenon that has been increasing publicly for over a decade, but in fact has acquired disturbing features since the year 2000, when the government thought it should declare itself neutral regarding the guerrilla conflict in Colombia. This position prompted the drug trafficking networks to presume that the Venezuelan borders would become more permeable for their business activities.

In fact, the Army and the National Guard were occupied with issues involving the maintenance of internal public order and, of course, they neglected their work in the border zones, to the delight of the networks of drug traffickers, and vendors of arms and chemicals intended for the industrial processing of cocaine. There was so much neglect that Venezuela became the main centre for the passage of drug shipments bound for the United States and European markets. At the present time, to our misfortune, we are still holding that high position on the map of drug trafficking.

As the Colombian drug kingpins had carefully calculated, the Bolivarian government’s differences with the United States would end up in a break-off in the cooperation policy with the DEA [US Drug Enforcement Administration]: something that could only benefit those who have made Venezuela the most reliable route for transporting their cocaine and heroin shipments. The most dreadful part of all this is that, if this country was already limping publicly in its antidrug policy, today it is actually in a wheelchair, after Minister Chacon announced that the cooperative relations with the DEA had reached a total break-off.

According to Minister Chacon, with or without the DEA officials, Venezuela “will continue fighting the drug traffic”. In his opinion (obtained by the international news agencies), the problem “is not the battle against drug trafficking, but rather the existence of countries and agencies that believe they can do what they please in other nations”. He is not unreasonable, but how can he bring up the argument of the national sovereignty when drug trafficking is violating it in all the ways that have existed and ever will exist, by air, sea and land, as has been made evident not only to the US antidrug agents, but also to the governments of Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, of all the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as of Guyana, Brazil and France?

What is advisable for the country, after all, is not this separation between the National Guard [GN] and the DEA, but rather a closer cooperation, certainly subject to all types of controls on the part of the central government. The work with drugs tends to generate a great deal of corruption, and that is a constant danger. The recent stories have given us much evidence of that.

The DEA-GN separation is nothing new. The reduction on the operational level is not perceived in the number of arrested persons, nor in the volume of drugs confiscated, but rather in the quality of those arrested, who are all small runners or distributors. The last major arrest for drugs in the country was that of Jose Maria Corredor Ibargue, alias “El Boyaco”, and he escaped from Minister Jesse Chacon, from the DISIP [Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services] lockups.

In this case, attention should be called to the disinformation attempted by the government, with the aim of preventing the public from learning who this Colombian was.

He was none other than the coordinator of the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] air routes for their Front 16, headed by the commander, “Fabian Ramirez” (nom de guerre). This was an important piece of evidence in the charges against the guerrilla organization’s top echelon being brought by prosecutors in Florida and Virginia.

Without cooperation with the DEA there will simply be no more captures like that of “El Boyaco”.

The government’s obvious sympathy for the FARC (proven by the picture of “Tirofijo” in the promotion of Telesur [new Venezuelan TV network] has its consequences in the international police environment.

It is known that there will be very little success in investigating the connection between that group and the drug and arms trafffic. So, the foreign governments are seeking other options, such as the joint operations of the armies of Brazil and Colombia, the maritime cordon in the Caribbean Sea, and others.

But the calculations indicate that between 150 and 200 metric tons of various drugs are passing through the country every year. What is seized when the “small runners” are captured at the airports does not even amount to 15 per cent of what is passing through Venezuela. What sovereignty, Mr Chacon?