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Caribbean-Latin America
US says drug shipments through Venezuela rising
2006-12-18
CARACAS, Venezuela - Cocaine shipments through Venezuela have increased tenfold over five years, the US ambassador to Caracas said as the two countries struggle to renew a counter-narcotics accord.

Venezuela last year ended cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration after President Hugo Chavez accused the agency of spying on him amid increasing confrontation between Washington and Caracas.
And it makes it easier for Hugo's pals to trans-ship the stuff. Remember that's been one of Fidel's weapons in trying to weaken our country, and there's plenty of evidence out there that shows that Cuba has been used as a trans-shipment point over the decades.
‘Right now our estimate is that between around 200 and 300 tonnes of processed cocaine (every year) pass through Venezuela -- ten times the amount of five years ago,’ said US Ambassador William Brownfield in a television interview broadcast on Sunday. ‘Part of the reason is that drug traffickers ... see an opening in Venezuela, where there is no collaboration’ with the United States, he said.
He left the other part unsaid.
The nation is a key transit route to the United States and Europe for drugs coming out of neighboring Colombia, the worldÂ’s top cocaine producer. Venezuelan authorities say they have increased the number of drug seizures and drug-related arrests since cutting ties with the DEA, but Brownfield attributed this to a greater amount of drugs flowing through Venezuela.

Washington complains Venezuela, which provides around 12 percent of US oil imports, has not done enough to fight the drug trade, and last year revoked the visas of three high-ranking military officers suspected of drug trafficking.
Posted by:Steve White

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