Venezuela drug scandal reverberates as elections kick off

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-drug-scandal-reverberates-elections-kick-off-184627849.html




CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) —
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Venezuelan officials kept silent Friday on the arrest this week of two nephews of first lady Cilia Flores on U.S. drug trafficking charges.

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The two young men were arrested in Haiti on Tuesday on charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. They are being held in New York without bail.


U.S prosecutors have investigated several high-level Venezuelan officials for drug and corruption charges, but this week's arrests marks the first time President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle has been directly implicated. Even many government critics were surprised because they tend to see Maduro, the hand-picked successor to late President Hugo Chavez, as incompetent but not especially corrupt.


National media have largely blacked out the news of the drug charges. One of the country's largest daily newspapers reported on the drug bust, but left out any connection to the first family.


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On Twitter, Venezuelans posted memes and jokes poking fun at a weekly television show Flores hosts titled "Cilia with her family," and mocking the administration for banning a Telemundo soap opera the week of the arrests on the grounds that it glorified the lifestyle of drug traffickers.