Washington and Bogota against Hugo Chavez Frias

VHeadline special guest correspondent Salim Lamrani writes: The hostility of the Bush administration towards the Venezuelan government scored a new high on January 19 (2008) in the words of USAmerican "anti-drugs czar", John P. Walters.

During a visit to Colombia, he accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of facilitating the trafficking of cocaine to Europe and other places in the hemisphere.

This new attack against the most popular Latinamerican leader, far from being gratuitous, is a part of the satanization strategy orchestrated by the White House against the Bolivarian process in order to justify further radical actions against Venezuela.

Now Washington and Bogota are trying to implicate Caracas in the international drug trade to further tarnish Chavez' image. (1)

ATTACKS ON VENEZUELA

A few days later, on January 24, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos declared that at least three leaders of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) were living in Venezuela ... without providing any corroberating details.

At the same time, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos accused Maracaibo's Mayor Gian Carlo Di Martino of supplying weapons to the Colombian guerrillas, specifically the National Liberation Army (ELN) ... based on a video that was later proven to be a fake.

Far from retreating, he said that the Venezuelan Mayor would be captured and taken to Colombia (2).

Meanwhile, Di Martino denounced "a stitch-up that revealed the USAmerican ... and Colombian governments plan to unleash an unstabilization process on the Venezuelan border (3).

Colombian intelligence services also accused Venezuela of supplying ammunition to the FARC and ELN guerrilla groups ... in line with USAmerican Department of Defense declarations (4).

Venezuelan opposition groups followed the same line as Washington and Bogota ... an ex-director from the National Antidrugs Office, Mildred Camero, stated that alleged drug dealers were "protected by Venezuelan authorities and were acting with absolute impunity." (5)

The common factor in all these accusations is the absolute lack of proof or concrete facts to support or substantiate the various allegations.

President Chavez denounced the USAmerican and Colombian maneuvers: "I warn the world about this: the USAmerican empire is creating the conditions for an armed conflict", he underlined. "In less than a week, the chief of the armed forces from the empire came to Colombia, [followed by] the anti-drug czar to say that I am `the great facilitator` of drug trade", he added, criticizing at the same time the statements by the Colombian Defense Minister. (6)

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega also warned the international community of the danger of this campaign to link Venezuela with the drugs trade. "The United States is using Colombian territory [...] it's a country under a US military occupation force that's trying to break this opportunity [for freedom] that is gaining ground in Latin America", he said. "We hope that the Colombian people can stop this evil streak in their government [...] and that they don't allow the madness of provoking a confrontation". (7)

ALVARO URIBE AND THE US DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY

ARE THEMSELVES INVOLVED IN NARCOTRAFFICKING

Actually, the only high ranking officer involved in drug trafficking is Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, as shown from an 'impeachable' source: an intelligence report from the US Department of Defense (September 1991) detailing the covert links between Uribe, the Medellin cartel and paramilitary forces.

According to the 'confidential' document, Alvaro Uribe is included in a list of 104 "criminals, murderers, traffickers and suspect lawyers" as a "Colombian politician and senator who is a collaborator of the Medellin cartel".

The report also says that "Uribe was linked to a business dealing with smuggling narcotics to the USA [...], has worked with the Medellin cartel and is a personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria" (8).

A memo from Thomas M. Kent, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, reveals that the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) -- which is a branch of the Department of Justice -- has cooperated with Colombian narcotraffickers and paramilitaries on a regular basis and that its officers are "corrupt agents of the war on drugs".

This document is an implacable accusation against the DEA and affirms, among other things, that many of its officers are at the beck and call of the Colombian drug dealers, that they are accomplices in the murder of informants and that they are directly implicated in money-laundering operations linked to the death squads.

• The memo adds that these corrupt agents are protected by the highest government powers (9).

Kent's memo, dated December 19, 2004, is based on the testimony of DEA's agents in Florida, expelled from active duty after they denounced corruption cases. According to the USAmerican lawyer, these agents confronted "huge risks for their careers, their safety and that of their families" after revealing "the names of those directly involved in criminal activities in the US and in Bogota" (10).

According to Kent, a DEA agent was involved in criminal activities for his collaboration with the Death Squads of the the paramilitary organization Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), which are responsible of several thousand murders.

• The memo exposes "his implication in money-laundering for the AUC".

Far from being brought to trial, this agent was promoted and "now he's in charge of numerous investigations on drug trafficking and money laundering".

The lawyer says that the officers from the Department of Justice buried this compromising case file in the archives.

"In June 2004 the OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility, a DEA branch] and the DEA itself [...] asked the agent in charge of this case to submit all the information [...]. A week later, the investigation on money laundering was closed" (11).

Kent's memo details three more cases of DEA agents' involvements in Colombia. These officers were part of a conspiracy to murder informants who had testified. "They provided astonishing revelations on DEA agents in Bogota. They said that the agents helped in their drug smuggling activities. They specifically mentioned that the agents provided information on investigations and other activities in Colombia", the lawyer wrote.

These agents in Bogota meet with the informant after his confession. "He was murdered after the meeting", the memo says. "Other informants [...] who worked with the DEA team in Florida were murdered, too. Each murder was preceded by an identity request procedure from a DEA agent" (12).

The DEA agents in Bogota worked to avoid that various informants could travel to the USA to testify. While in charge of taking care of the informats' transportation, the officers detained them. The memo explains that "the informants were held in prison for nine months while the accusations poured in. When it became clear that the DEA agents in Bogota were lying, the informants were released. One of them was kidnapped and murdered in Bogota, where he was hiding" (13).

Additionally, DEA agents in Colombia prevented a meeting between an informant and a group of agents who came from Florida related to an investigation on them. No means were excluded. "One agent from Bogota traveled to Washington and said that the informant was a pederast. The investigation was classified. The agent was requested to support his accusation, and couldn't provide any proof" (14).

DUBIOUS MORAL LEGITIMACY
IN WASHINGTON AND BOGOTA.

Kent's revelations are overwhelming both for Colombia and the United States and cast seroious doubts on their moral legitimacy to declare themselves judges on this issue. As for Uribe, the report from the department of defense is implacable against him and it shows his implication with organized crime and international drugs trade.

Uribe is not the only politician or officer with a dirty trail. A retired Colombian army general, Pauselino Latorre, who was in charge of intelligence services, as well as his nephew, Leobardo Latorre, ex-attorney for the antinarcotis unit, were arrested in january 2008 charged with money laundering of one million US dollars and association with drug mobs. They worked out a system to export huge amounts of cocaine (ten tons per month) not only to the US but also to Europe and Africa (15).

A DIFFERENT REALITY

It is important to refresh some relvant elements on the drug trade problem and shed some light on the discredit campaign launched by Washington and Bogota on Venezuela.

As a matter of fact, the world's largest producer and consumer of these substances is not Venezuela, but Colombia.

• The US is the largest market and drug consumer of the planet and has never acted against the financial institutions involved in money laundering of the proceeds of the drug trade (16).

The Bush administration is trying to convince the world that Venezuela is the global center for narcotrafficking. The US State Department has placed Venezuela for the third consecutive year in the list of countries that have failed in the antinarcotic struggle.

However, the UN world report contradicts these statements: It is often said that the shipments [of drugs] pass through Venezuela, Brazil and a number of other countries, including Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Argentina and as a new tendency through Mexico. However, the main tendency in the last two or three years has been the shipment of cocaine to West Africa, generally in the coastal waters of Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissou and the Canary Islands, as well as many countries in the Guinea gulf, like Ghana, Cotê D'Ivoire, Togo, Nigeria and further west to Guinea, Sierra Leona and Liberia to be delivered later to Europe" (17).

On the other hand, Venezuela's huge efforts in the active fight against narcotrafficking are recognized. Since breaking the collaboration deal with the DEA [after an US political espionnage scheme unrelated to drugs was exposed-note by translator] the seizures by the Venezuelan authorities went from 43.25 tonnes in 2004 to 77.52 tons in 2005.

In Venezuela, DEA was responsible for conspiratorial activities and domestic surveillance in favor of the anti-democratic opposition. It also went many times over domestic legislation by arresting people, an activity that is reserved by law to local authorities. Caracas denounced "a flagrant violation to its national sovereignty and a dangerous risk for national security and defense" (18).

It is hard to accuse Venezuelan authorities of negligence or complacency in the fight against drug trafficking. As a matter of fact, according to the ONA (National Antidrugs Office), in 2007 57 tonnes of drugs and 53 airplanes were seized: thirteen laboratories for cocaine production were destroyed close to the Colombian border, as well as 60 clandestine airports. Another 126 airstrips are being dismantled. Over 178 tonnes of chemicals were seized, as well as 23 real estate properties, 25 boats, 18 aircrafts, 53 ranchs and 106 land-vehicles that were used in the illicit trade.

• Venezuela extradited three persons to Colombia in March and April 2007, answering positively to a request by the Colombian Administrative Security Department.
  
• One USamerican citizen was deported following a request from Washington (19).

Venezuela has spent US$480 million for the installation of radars to allow a better control of its national airspace, specially along the colombian border. Over 380 officers of the national security services are dedicated to watch illegal traffic and to analize satellite images to detect illegal crops. At least 17 inspection flights were made on the border during december 2007 (20).

International institutions like the UN and the OAS have acknowledged venezuelan efforts in the struggle against drug trafficking, with emphasys on the use of the "Interamerican Uniform Data on Drug Consumption System", the application of prevention programs, research and investigation, the creation of a national register of controlled chemical substances, the promulgation of laws against organized crime, systematic eradication of illegal crops and the ratification of numerous international agreements to fight illicit drugs (21).

Additionally, the CICAD (InterAmerican Committee for Drug Abuse Control) report for 2007 recognizes Venezuela's efforts in this field. Caracas has signed 50 bilateral agreements with 37 countries on this issue. The National AntiDrugs Office has been praised by most of the countries in the region, as well as by Spain, the UK and the Netherlands (22).

The Bolivarian government of Venezuela has worked on a national strategy to fight drugs trafficking by building three airports in Maracaibo, Maiquetía and Margarita which will be the only ones allowed to handle arrivals and departures of private planes so as to better control air traffic.

An identification system (IFF) to keep track of illegal flights on national airspace has been installed.

A national antidrug network has been formed in cooperation with all the social services in the country, and an innovatory five years (2008-2013) plan has been launched to better fight organized crime by means of a more adequate control of water- and air-ways (23).

We must remember that the US, while pretending to be leading a worldwide war on drugs and accusing Venezuela of lack of cooperation in this field, boycotted the purchase of Spanish airplanes that were essential for the control of the Colombian border on the grounds that these planes were equipped with USamerican technology & components.

The same excuse was used to boycott a purchase of 24 Tucanos airplanes from Brazil, which were specifically needed to fight drug trafficking. More over, the Bush administration withdrew two vigilance radars from Venezuelan territory (24).

WASHINGTON'S DOUBLE STANDARDS
AND THE THREATS FROM BOGOTA

As can be easily seen, the White House has no moral authority to stigmatize Venezuela in the matter of war on drugs. Washington's [lack of] credibility has been exposed, and so the calls by the US State Department and its spokesperson, Thomas A. Shannon, to restart the dialogue on this issue, cannot be taken seriously (25).

Besides, Caracas has never been ambiguous on this issue; just the opposite in fact ... it has always been quite clear: "Narotrafficking is a criminal activity with immoral and tragic consequences. It provides millions of dollars to the drug cartels, but destroys phisically and morally the lives of millions of human beings on Earth. The war on drug trafficking is an ethical obligation" (26).

Hugo Chavez has repeated his admonition regarding the eventuality of a Colombian offensive action against Venezuela. Intelligence services in neighbouring countries have confirmed his suspicions (27). The President warned that the [Bolivarian] armed forces are in state of alert because "it's possible that Colombia engaged in a military action against Venezuela, but they'll repent for a hundred years" (28) "I accuse the Colombian government of conspiring, to be acting like a puppet of the USAmerican empire and to be planning military provocation against Venezuela" (29).

Washington denied that possibility (30).

During a meeting with relatives of Colombians kidnapped [by the FARC], Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro stated again that his desire is to keep peaceful and cordial relations with Colombia, and modestly offered his contribution in favor of the freedom for all the victims of kidnapping and of peace. By the way, the FARC have just announced the unilateral release of three more hostages (31).

The disinformation campaign launched by the White House and cheered on by Bogota has but one objective: to tarnish the image of the Venezuelan government. Washington does not accept to watch how a country in the subcontinent shakes itself free from its tutelage and regains independence.

Notes:

(1) The Associated Press, «Venezuela rechaza acusación de zar antidrogas de EEUU», 21 de enero de 2008.

(2) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «EEUU crea condiciones para generar conflicto entre Venezuela y Colombia», 26 de enero de 2008.

(3) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «Di Martino: El vídeo es un montaje», 26 de enero de 2008.

(4) Gonzalo Guillén, «Acusan a Chávez de suministrar balas a las FARC y el ELN», El Nuevo Herald, 21 de enero de 2008.

(5) The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, «Ex jefa antidrogas denuncia apoyo a narcos en Venezuela», 4 de febrero de 2008. Ver también The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, «Denuncian protección de narcos en Venezuela», 3 de febrero de 2008.

(6) The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, «Chávez: EEUU propicia conflicto armado Colombia-Venezuela», 26 de enero de 2008.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «EEUU conoce vínculos del presidente de Colombia con el narcotráfico y el paramilitarismo», 23 de enero de 2008.

(9) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «DEA colabora con narcos y paramilitares en Colombia», 25 de enero de 2008.

(10) Bill Conroy, «Leaked Memo: Corrupt DEA Agents in Colombia Helps Narcos and Paramilitaries. Internal Justice Dept. Document Alleges Drug Trafficking Links, Money Laudering and Conspiracy to Murder», The Narco News Bulletin, 9 de enero de 2006. http://www.narconews.com/docs/ThomasKentMemo.pdf (sitio consultado el 10 de febrero de 2008).

(11) Ibid.

(12) Ibid.

(13) Ibid.

(14) Ibid.

(15) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «General y ex fiscal colombianos arrestados por pertenecer a mafia de la droga», 25 de enero de 2008.

(16) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «Discurso del Embajador Jorge Valero, viceministro para América del Norte y Asuntos Multilaterales y Representante permanente de Venezuela, ante el Consejo Permanente de la OEA», 23 de enero de 2008.

(17) Oficina contra la Droga y el Delito, 2007, Informe Mundial sobre las Drogas, Naciones Unidas, 2007, p. 81. http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2007/WDR%202007_Spanish_web.pdf (sitio consultado el 10 de febrero de 2008).

(18) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «Discurso del Embajador Jorge Valero, Viceministro para América del Norte y Asuntos Multilaterales y Representante Permanente de Venezuela, ante el Consejo Permanente de la OEA», op. cit.

(19) Ibid.

(20) Ibid.

(21) Ibid.

(22) Ibid.

(23) Ibid.

(24) Ibid. Ver también: The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, «Venezuela instalará nuevos radares para combatir narcotráfico», 24 de enero de 2008.

(25) Néstor Ikeda, «EEUU invita otra vez a Venezuela a ir al diálogo», The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, 23 de enero de 2008.

(26) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «Discurso del Embajador Jorge Valero, Viceministro para América del Norte y Asuntos Multilaterales y Representante Permanente de Venezuela, ante el Consejo Permanente de la OEA», op. cit.

(27) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «Presidente advierte que Colombia pudiera estar preparando ofensiva contra Venezuela», 3 de febrero de 2008.

(28) The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, «Chávez: Militares en alerta ante posible amenaza de Colombia», 2 de febrero de 2008.

(29) Jorge Rueda, «Chavez: Colombia Plans 'Aggression'», The Associated Press, 26 de enero de 2008.

(30) The Associated Press / El Nuevo Herald, «Subsecretario de EEUU descarta conflicto armado Venezuela y Colombia», 23 de enero de 2008.

(31) Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, «Canciller Maduro reiteró el compromiso del Gobierno de Venezuela con la paz», 5 de febrero de 2008.

Salim Lamrani es profesor, escritor y periodista francés especialista de las relaciones entre Cuba y Estados Unidos. Ha publicado los libros: Washington contre Cuba (Pantin: Le Temps des Cerises, 2005), Cuba face à l'Empire (Genève: Timeli, 2006) y Fidel Castro, Cuba et les Etats-Unis (Pantin: Le Temps des Cerises, 2006). Acaba de publicar Double Morale. Cuba, l'Union européenne et les droits de l'homme (Paris: Editions Estrella, 2008). Contacto: lamranisalim@yahoo.fr

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