Monday 01 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
ECLA Proposes
Measures Against Impact From Food Price
Hikes
Colombia Crisis Brews,
Uribe Stews
Colombia Alerts Public
Over Probable
Contamination Of River
Venezuela Rejects Visit
Of U.S. Anti-Drug Chief
Venezuela Energizes
South Bank Initiative
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Venezuela Rejects Visit
Of U.S. Anti-Drug Chief
CARACAS - The Venezuelan
Foreign Ministry has
rejected a visit by John
P. Walters, director of
the U.S. National Drug
Control Policy office,
calling the proposed
trip useless and
ill-timed.
A ministry statement
issued Sunday said the
American anti-drug chief
"would better use his
time to control the
flourishing drug
trafficking and abuse in
his own country."
Venezuelans are
displeased with the
visit, it added.
The fight against drugs
has actually seen
"significant progress in
Venezuela in the last
few years, especially
since the Bolivarian
government ended the
cooperation programs
with the U.S. Drug
Enforcement
Administration (DEA),"
the statement said.
Venezuela ended
cooperation with the DEA
in 2006, accusing it of
espionage.
The government of
President Hugo Chavez
reaffirmed Sunday that
the DEA operated in an
illegal way on
Venezuelan territory,
and openly conspired
against the South
American country's
democratic and
constitutional order.
The U.S. government has
been able to send
thousands of soldiers to
Iraq and to persecute
Latin American
countries, yet it was
inefficient in the fight
against drugs, the
ministry statement said.
In his Sunday TV program
"Hello President,"
Chavez accused the DEA
of collaborating with
drug dealers.
Meanwhile, U.S.
Ambassador to Venezuela
Patrick Duddy has said
deteriorating diplomatic
relations between
Caracas and Washington
are giving drug
smugglers the upper
hand.
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