(US) Report slams Venezuela for drug trafficking

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - In its harshest assessment yet of drug trafficking in Venezuela, the State Department on Thursday said the country is turning into a haven for smugglers because of corruption and the government's refusal to cooperate with other nations.
...
Venezuela's leftwing President Hugo Chavez has long been at loggerheads with the Bush administration, which has accused him of everything from undermining democracies in the hemisphere to provoking an arms race - allegations denied by the Chavez government.

The report calls Venezuela "one of the principal drug-transit countries in the Western Hemisphere," with Colombian traffickers setting up shop there because the Chavez government is "permissive and corrupt."
...
The report praises Colombia, the world's top cocaine producer, as "completely committed" to the drug war. It calls Mexican efforts to combat traffickers last year as "unmatched" by any previous government there. About 90 percent of the cocaine in U.S. streets is believed to have come through the border with Mexico.
...
Patterson denied that the report picked on Venezuela because of Chavez's strident criticism of Bush.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16813379.htm

[ret5hd]

1. You just keep throwin' shit to see what's gonna stick, don't ya' georgie.

[sweetheart]

2. does a bear shit in the woods? nt

[IndianaGreen]

7. Next we will be hearing (again) about Al-Qaeda presence in Venezuela

Lucky for us that only the very hard core of the irrational Right still believes the lies that come out of the Bush regime.

[EST]

3. The ultimate hypocrisy...

This criminal cabal-with direct connection to the entire republican crime family, going back since forever-was almost single handedly responsible for the crack epidemic of the '80s and has the gall to attempt to frame someone else for drug trafficking?

I hope the message is not lost on America. Republicans, with their big business love affair for many generations, are morally responsible for virtually all the crime in this country and they pretend to be outraged.

Sick, sick society.

[Vidar]

4. Naturally, our "friends", Columbia & Mexico, are blameless.

[Hunky Dunky]

15. Of course they're not blameless.

Lots of drug smuggling dirtbags in Mexico and Colombia. So, why wouldn't there be drug smuggling dirt bags in Venezuela too? That's the area of the world where a lot of that shit is grown, so I imagine they have their share of dirtbags too.

[Dr.Phool]

5. Give it a day or two

And Ollie North or Elliot Abrams will out a few more undercover informants, just to "prove" it.

[talkinghead]

6. Seeing as how we have the largest appetite for drugs in the world

it would make sense for us to legalize all drugs. The black market would cease to exist and irreparable damage would be visited upon the cartels in South America. The drug war is a failure. It has only succeeded in crippling the inner cities and encroaching into the private lives of individuals.

[HuffleClaw]

bwahahahhaahhahahahaaaaaaaaaa

what a joke.

[jwirr]

8. I wonder how many of the oil wells Chevez nationalized belonged

to *ss and co.?

[The Anti-Neo Con]

9. I can't wait for Chavez's response to this...

hopefully he will mention *'s hard-partying coke sniffing days.

[w4rma]

10. You have to be kidding. The drug capitol of Central America gets praised while a country with very

little drug trafficking out of it (*especially* when you consider their relative sizes) gets "slammed".

[EFerrari]

14. Not to mention, the head drug trafficker of the Americas is making

the accusation.

Things that make you go "hmm".

[Peace Patriot]

11. 120% crap, as usual, from our criminal, fascist State Department.

All this has to do with Bush wanting to deliver an ADDITIONAL $4 billion check (against our future solvency) down to his rightwing thug friends in Colombia, where, right now, a huge scandal is underway involving mass murder, drug trafficking and corruption among the rightwing paramilitaries who are the chief beneficiaries of US/Bush Junta aid. These are the people who kills leftists and peasants and union organizers--and, it was recently discovered, plotted to assassinate Venezuela's President Chavez. Bush wants Congress to cough up these non-existent taxpayer dollars to help these criminals recover from the scandal and continue killing leftists, peasants and union organizers, and get themselves ready for the Bush Cartel push into Bolivia and the other Andean democracies, to destabilize and topple these democratic governments (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, also Argentina) and to prevent the election of real governments in Peru and Paraguay (where big leftist electoral movements are in progress). And the Democrats, who always agree to take sucker punches on the murderous US "war on drugs" and on "flag-waving, 'support our troops'" demagoguery, will possibly comply. Upshot: The U.S./Bush Junta supports fascist thugs, and vilifies democratic governments.

Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

Know much of their votes Venezuelans handcount as a check on electronic voting machine totals (an open source code system)? 55%.

Know much of our votes WE handcount as a check on machine totals run on 'TRADE SECRET,' proprietary programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations? 0% to 1%.

And you wonder why they have a good government and we do not. It's REAL simple.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Colombia's own election practices could be improved, somewhat, considering there are reports of

paramilitaries not only intimidating voters, and candidates, but going right into the booths with them!

The stories are coming more frequently now of paramilitary pressure on the citizens to elect right-wing candidates, going all the way to Uribe.

With just a little bit of luck Colombian citizens are going to start talking more and more, if they can get international journalists in there, (Colombia has the highest rate of murdered journalists IN THE WORLD) to get the news back out to the rest of the world, and we'll be hearing far more of what has been going on there in Alvaro Uribe's right-wing, paramilitary-enforced regime.

As dirty as they are, apparently they couldn't be finer, according to our own _Bush administration, which hasn't given the elected Venezuelan government a moment's peace from the very first day of the occupation of the White House.

You have to wonder how on earth they can stand to look at their own faces in the mirror, knowing what profound liars they have been regarding the American public.

Venzuela could not be further from the utterly murderous, corrupt politics _Bush supports with OUR money, and future generations' money (harder and harder to earn and keep for American taxpayers) in Colombia.

Oh, yeah. I just remembered _Bush gives a lot of money to Venezuelans, too, if they are members of the opposition working to destabilize their federal government.

[EFerrari]

13. WASHINGTON criticizes VENEZUELA for DRUG TRAFFICKING?

:rofl::rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[donkeyotay]

16. We'll invade them and clean up their drug problem like we did in Afghanistan. nt

[talkinghead]

17. Yeah, we've worked wonders there

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6410263.stm

[donkeyotay]

18. You cheated! You looked in the furrin press.

:evilgrin:
:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

19. Venezuela rejects U.S. drug report, accuses DEA of collaborating with traffickers

Last modified Friday, March 2, 2007 10:21 PM PST
Venezuela rejects U.S. drug report, accuses DEA of collaborating with traffickers

By: CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER - Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela accused U.S. anti-drug agents Friday of collaborating with traffickers and rejected Washington's allegations that rampant corruption has allowed illegal drug smuggling to thrive in the South American country.

Justice Minister Pedro Carreno accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of forging ties with drug traffickers before President Hugo Chavez suspended cooperation with the agency in 2005.

"A large quantity of drug shipments left the country through that organization," Carreno said a day after the State Department criticized Venezuela in its annual report on drug trafficking. "We were in the presence of a new drug cartel."

Speaking in a radio interview, Carreno did not elaborate on his accusations against the DEA, which continues working with law enforcement contacts within Venezuela.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy were not immediately available for comment Friday.

President Bush has proposed eliminating $2.2 million in annual drug-fighting money for Venezuela and shifting the funding to other countries since Venezuela stopped accepting the aid, U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn has said.
(snip)

Venezuelan officials say they have increased enforcement along the long border with Colombia, and that federal police and National Guard troops have seized more drugs than ever in the last two years -- about 148 tons.

Chavez's administration "has always been strongly committed" to making sure that "Venezuela is not used as a bridge for drug trafficking," Carreno said.
(snip/)

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/03/news/nation/20_41_553_2_07.txt