US Ambassador William Brownfield had not yet commented on Chavez's announcement, though he's clearly been on message in the past. A week ago he stated that should Venezuela end cooperation with the DEA, "there is only one group that wins, and that group is the drug traffickers."Or the terrorists. Which in the Bush Administration's public statements, are largely becoming the same thing. During his brief public meeting with Colombian President Uribe, during which less than four questions from the press were asked, Bush and his guest used the words terror, terrorism or terrorist no less than twenty-two times. Colombia's problems are fighting "narco-terrorists," Uribe said; and he's just the type of narco-democrat to eliminate them.
Accusations of drug trafficking have been US administrations' kiss of death in the past. Former Colombian President Samper was publicly accused of accepting campaign contributions from drug cartels and became an international pariah, and we all know what happened to Manuel Noriega in Panama. On the other hand, charges that close relatives of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas were involved in cocaine smuggling into the United States were never echoed by the government, which viewed Salinas as a partner rather than an antagonist. And the DEA had credible evidence that the sitting president of the Dominican Republic was raising money from druglords in the United States during his election campaign, but the investigation (based primarily in Philadelphia) was suppressed.
Chavez just escalated his war of words with the US government, which can now claim that Venezuela is a "black hole" in the South American drug trade (while Colombia is apparently a shining example of transparency), and only the DEA can save it. It's doubtful that he cares.
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