Venezuela Blasts “Illegal” US Sanctions Against VP

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry called the move an “unprecedented act” that “flagrantly violates international law”. 

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Caracas, February 14, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday denouncing a move by the Trump administration to sanction Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami over drug trafficking allegations. 

On Monday, the Treasury Department froze all of El Aissami’s alleged assets in the US under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, making the vice-president the top-ranking official of any country to be sanctioned in this way.

In particular, the sanctions target thirteen companies owned by Samark Jose Lopez Bello, who is accused of being a “key frontman” for the Venezuelan official.

According to a Treasury Department statement, El Aissami is alleged to have “facilitated shipments of narcotics from Venezuela, to include control over planes that leave from a Venezuelan air base, as well as control of drug routes through the ports in Venezuela,” reportedly in connection with the Las Zetas Cartel in Mexico. 

The Trump administration has yet, however, to release any evidence to bolster the accusations, while the US Justice Department has not publically opened investigations into El Aissami or his alleged associate. 

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry, for its part, denounced the move as an “unprecedented act” in US-Venezuelan relations, accusing the Trump administration of violating international law.

“These actions, which attempt to validate the vulgar and inadmissible existence of an imperial law, granting special police powers to US government entities, lacks the most minimum legality under international law,” reads the text of the official communiqué. 

Addressing the allegations, the Foreign Ministry noted that since the Chávez government’s expulsion of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in 2005 over espionage accusations, Venezuela has increased its efficiency in drug seizures by 60 percent, confiscating an annual average of 55.7 tons of narcotics. During El Aissami’s tenure as interior minister, he reportedly oversaw the arrest and prosecution of 102 drug kingpins, extraditing as many as 21 accused drug traffickers to the United States.

In a statement on his official Twitter account, El Aissami called on his supporters not to be “distracted” by what he decried as a “vile and miserable aggression”.

“Let’s not be distracted by these miserable provocations, our principal task is to accompany [President] Nicolas Maduro in the economy recovery,” he declared.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department measure was applauded by US congress members on both sides of the aisle. Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez issued a joint statement Monday calling the step “long overdue”, while Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he hoped the sanctions were “only the beginning”. 

The move marks an escalation of the Obama administration’s aggressive policies towards Venezuela, which saw Washington designate the South American country an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and sanction top officials. 

El Aissami, for his part, has long faced allegations from US politicians and international media outlets of links to drug traffickers and Islamic militant groups such as Hezbollah.

Nonetheless, the former Aragua governor is not the first senior Venezuelan official to face these accusations.

In 2015, the Wall Street Journal ran a widely circulated story accusing then Venezuelan National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello of heading a drug cartel, citing anonymous US Justice Department officials. However, no charges have ever been brought against the socialist lawmaker. 

More recently, a Brooklyn Federal District Court issued an indictment last year against Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol for allegedly taking bribes from drug traffickers during his tenure as head of the country’s anti-narcotics agency. Reverol has denied the charges.