Pubdate: Thu, 02 Mar 2006
Source: Morning Call (Allentown, PA)
Copyright: 2006 The Morning Call Inc.
Contact:  http://www.mcall.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/275
Author: Natalie Obiko Pearson, AP
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

VENEZUELA REJECTS U.S. CRITICISM ON DRUGS

CARACAS, Venezuela --  Venezuela's vice president said Thursday that 
the United States was the world's biggest consumer of illegal drugs 
and had no "moral authority" to criticize Venezuela for failing to 
control narcotics.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday in its annual report on drug 
trafficking that it no longer considers Venezuela an ally in the war 
on drugs, worsening already tense relations between Caracas and Washington.

In a speech to Venezuela's Congress, Vice President Jose Vicente 
Rangel responded that: "The country with the highest consumption of 
drugs is precisely the United States. Narcotrafficking and 
narcotraffickers are in the United States, not in Venezuela."

The U.S. report said that rampant corruption at high levels of law 
enforcement and a weak judicial system in Venezuela allowed hundreds 
of tons of Colombian cocaine to cross into the country each year.

Rangel claimed Thursday that high-ranking members of President Bush's 
administration were involved in drug trafficking and that the U.S. 
financial system was "clearly infiltrated" by the drug trade.

He accused U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte of 
links to drug trafficking in Central America to obtain funds to buy 
arms in Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra scandal -- allegations 
denied by U.S. officials in the past.

Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85 at a time 
when the U.S.-backed Contra rebels were secretly using that country 
as a base to attack the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Rangel did not provide further details.

President Hugo Chavez suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration in August, accusing its members of spying. 
The following month, the U.S. government said Venezuela had failed to 
effectively fight drug trafficking and removed Venezuela from a list 
of cooperating nations, though it did not impose formal sanctions.

Venezuela plans to sign a new anti-drug agreement with Washington 
that will strictly limit the local activities of U.S. drug agents, 
putting them under control of local authorities and barring joint operations.

U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield tried to defuse the 
dispute Thursday.

"The question is not what we have done in the past," he told 
reporters. "The question is what we are going to do in the future."
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