As part of its strengthened anti-drug operation in Latin America, the United States announced Thursday that its forces seized three tons of cocaine from two planes traveling from Venezuela to Guatemala.
The information was provided by James Story, North American Charge d’Affaires in the Caribbean country.
“In the last days, there have been two planes that left Venezuela for Guatemala with drugs and we had seizures of three thousand kilos of cocaine. I am not saying that all the drugs leave Venezuela, but I do say a significant percentage,” he said.
Likewise, the official commented that “only since April 1 have there been ten seizures of eight tons of drugs with a value of 165 million dollars.”
This occurs amid the largest anti-drug operation in the United States in the West launched on April 1 by President Donald Trump.
The mission has a greater naval and air force than the one previously stationed in the region, and aims to prevent dictatorial regimes from taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis.
The North American Navy sent ships and planes near the coasts of Venezuela days after formally accusing the dictator Nicolás Maduro and 14 members of the Chavista leadership of “narcoterrorism”.
Faced with criticism from the Chavista regime for the military deployment, and amid the gasoline crisis in Venezuela, Story clarified that the North American fleet in the Caribbean does not constitute a blockade or prevent the entry of gasoline into the Caribbean country, which faces a serious shortage for weeks:
“(The regime’s foreign minister, Jorge) Arreaza and others have said that there is a blockade of the United States, and it is not true. There is no ship from the United States in the Caribbean blocking the entry of gasoline to Venezuela,” he said.
The charge d’affaires pointed out that due to the international oil crisis, and in Venezuela itself, the Maduro dictatorship will not be able to sell crude for months or even years.
Along these lines, he indicated that having a capacity to refine gasoline of 1,300,000 barrels per day, Venezuela has dropped to 30,000 barrels per day “due to corruption and lack of maintenance.”
Days ago, Admiral Craig Faller, commander of the Southern Command of the United States Armed Forces, assured that drug trafficking from Venezuela “has increased significantly in recent years” and that the Maduro regime has benefited from this illegal activity.
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In a conference call with the press, the military officer also assured that the communist dictatorship in Cuba “assured the survival” of the Venezuelan regime and that it “is aware” of the drug trafficking activities linked to Maduro and the Chavista leadership.
In late March, the US Justice Department formally accused the members of the Venezuelan dictatorship of drug trafficking and offered $ 15 million for information leading to the capture of Maduro.
A week later, Washington announced the deployment of ships and planes in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which has been described as the “largest anti-drug operation in the West,” by the Southern Command.
Although the operation was launched after the accusation against Maduro and seems especially aimed at stopping the activities of the Cartel de los Soles, the criminal organization linked to Chavismo, Faller pointed out that Venezuela is not the only objective.
Source: Infobae
