Venezuela Says U.S. Drug Report May Hurt Relationship (Update2)

By Matthew Walter

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. must stop publishing “interventionist” reports criticizing the country’s drug interdiction practices in order for relations to improve.

A report published yesterday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office amounts to “political blackmail,” the ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. The GAO detailed the deteriorating relationship between U.S. and Venezuelan drug enforcement agencies and the increased flow of Colombian cocaine across Venezuelan territory.

The agency reported that cocaine shipments over Venezuelan borders more than quadrupled between 2004 and 2007 to 260 metric tons. Rampant government corruption and lax enforcement make it easier for smugglers to ship drugs into Venezuela from Colombia and load it onto planes at clandestine air strips or use boats bound for the U.S., Africa and Europe, the report said.

“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela confirms that the normalization of political relations with the United States is subordinated to the cessation of this intolerable practice,” the ministry said today.

The statement comes weeks after Venezuela and the U.S. agreed to send ambassadors to each others’ capitals for the first time since Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the U.S. envoy in Caracas in September.

Handshake

Chavez is increasingly critical of U.S. President Barack Obama, just three months after the two leaders shook hands at the Fifth Summit of the Americas and agreed to strengthen ties. Venezuela is the fourth-biggest supplier of foreign crude oil to the U.S.

The GAO, which is an investigative arm of U.S. Congress, said that U.S. government officials have seen a 63 percent increase in suspicious air traffic out of Venezuela from 2004 to 2007, with most flights heading to Hispaniola and Central America.

Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office reported that in 2008 it destroyed 325 secret runways.

The GAO report also said that files obtained last year from the computer of a deceased member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, or FARC, show that ties between the Colombian guerrilla group and the Venezuelan government are “well established.” Venezuela may have provided the FARC with $300 million, along with medical care and weapons, the report said.

Cooperation Efforts

U.S. officials have repeatedly tried to improve cooperation to fight drug trafficking without receiving a response from Venezuela, the GAO said.

Chavez in 2005 accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency of spying and formally cut ties. Since 2002, the number of U.S. counter-narcotics, law enforcement and military personnel in Venezuela has fallen to 13 from 43, and the GAO report said that only small-scale cooperation efforts have been achieved.

The U.S. Embassy’s Narcotics Affairs Section, for example, provided 12 bicycles to a Caracas municipality to help increase police visibility and provided dogs and training to a municipal K-9 unit.

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said today that the U.S. has recognized the South American country’s drug seizure efforts, and that the country is caught between the world’s biggest cocaine producer, Colombia, and its biggest consumer, the U.S.

“The GAO would make better use of U.S. taxpayer money by concentrating its efforts on dismantling the networks of corruption that make its own country a paradise for drug dealers and gangs,” the ministry said today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Walter at mwalter4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 21, 2009 14:20 EDT