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Venezuela Rejects US Drug Trafficking Designation

In an official statement, Venezuela's Foreign Ministry accuses the Trump administration of utilizing the "war on drugs" as a "political weapon" to destabilize the South American country. 

Venezuela's Ministry of Popular Power for Foreign Affairs (Archive)
Venezuela's Ministry of Popular Power for Foreign Affairs (Archive)
  1. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects the United States government’s ongoing unilateral practice of evaluating, judging, and issuing resolutions about sovereign states’ policies in areas that correspond exclusively to internal affairs.
  2. The resolution by President Trump with respect to countries with a high level of drug trafficking or illicit drug production for fiscal year 2018 exposes that the US’ supposed war on drugs is, in reality, a political weapon. This is evident given the grave situation of drug production in other countries in recent months; meanwhile, Venezuela is singled out for undertaking a sovereign counternarcotic policy. The US government does not care that Venezuela has demonstrated significant progress in the fight against drugs, particularly after 2005 when Venezuela ended the agreement with the US’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), subsequently doubling the confiscation and destruction of drugs by Venezuelan authorities. Nor is the US interested that this progress has been recognized by the United Nations, which recognizes Venezuela as a country free of illicit cultivation.
  3. The recent declarations by Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William Brownfield, on September 12, 2017 as well as this new presidential resolution simply constitute a new aggression by the US government with the aim of intensifying a campaign that seeks to cast Venezuela – a country that is not known as a producer or consumer of narcotics – as a state under the control of drug trafficking in order to thereby legitimate its political objective of intervening and destabilizing the Venezuelan government.
  4. The United States is currently the principal market for the consumption of illicit drugs, which is the reason why drug trafficking and production continue to be lucrative businesses for organized crime. Instead of dedicating its efforts to judging and punishing other sovereign countries that are affected by this demand for drugs, the US should review its internal policies in order to guarantee a reduction of consumption, which is really the root of the problem. We call on the US government to stop utilizing the issue for political ends and immediately proceed to correct its inefficient policies that end up destabilizing the zone of peace that is the American continent.

Caracas, 15 September 2017

Translated by Lucas Koerner for Venezuelanalysis.com.