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Venezuela Rejects U.S. Qualification on Counter-Narcotics

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the abusive and interventionist qualification of Venezuela as a country that has “failed demonstrably during the previous twelve months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.”

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs

Statement

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the abusive and interventionist qualification of Venezuela as a country that has “failed demonstrably during the previous twelve months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements.” This determination was made by the U.S. government in an irresponsible, unilateral, arbitrary manner and pretending to serve as a judge of the fight against drugs globally.

Additionally, Venezuela denounces the coercive character of this measure and demands that all extra-territorial laws that serve as the legal foundation for the imperialist U.S. state be reviewed and derogated in accordance to Article 32 of the Charter of Economic Duties and Rights of States (Resolution 3281, XXIX General Assembly of the United Nations, December 12, 1974), which states: “No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights.”

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela considers that neither the U.S. government nor any of its institutions has the moral authority to judge the efforts of independent states like the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the international fight against drug trafficking. The U.S. government should take care of itself due to the enormous internal problems that affect its people as well as its institutions, those which have turned the country into one of the principal consumers of illegal drugs in the world, a heaven for the laundering of money earned from the trafficking of drugs and the world’s primary producer of marijuana.

To cite just a few examples, according to international reports, the U.S. population faces the highest indices of illegal drug consumption. Additionally, from the U.S., and with the acquiescence of its institutions, drug production is contributing with the business of the international trafficking of these substances.

It is well known internationally that the principal centers of production of marijuana in the world are found in U.S. national parks and covert cultivation houses. At the same time, criminal organizations located in the U.S. have specialized in the production of emerging drugs like K-2, or synthetic marijuana, and genetically modified marijuana (with THC concentrations four times above control samples), taking advantage of knowledge generated by U.S. think tanks.

Moreover, the U.S. financial system continues lending its services to criminal organizations for the laundering of ill-gained capital, as demonstrated by Wachovia Bank, which admitted in March 2010 its participation in the laundering of U.S. $ 420 billion coming from Mexican drug trafficking groups.

For all of these reasons, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela considers inadmissible that the U.S. government politically employ the issue of the use and trafficking of illegal drugs to attack a democratic government with an impeccable record in the fight against this scourge, created by the U.S.’s consumerist and capitalist way of life. It is also inadmissible that the U.S. government question the policies that the sovereign Venezuelan state has implemented in this regard, those of which have presented a positive balance this year, including the seizure of 46 tons of various drugs, the arrest of more than 7,000 people, and an effective legal persecution of these crimes that exceeds international standards.

Over the last four years, after having suspended the indignant cooperation agreements with the DEA – which had become the real drug cartel – the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela succeeded in, amongst other things, the arrest of 51 drug kingpins, 16 of them this year alone, who have been turned over to relevant authorities, including those of the U.S. government.

Additionally, understanding that the problem of drugs has many causes and requires an integral response, more than 10,000 metric tons of chemical precursors that were destined for the production of cocaine in Colombia have also been seized. Venezuela has also dismantled a total of 29 drug laboratories on the border with Colombia, and for the fifth consecutive year has been declared a territory free of illicit drug cultivations thanks to the great efforts of our armed forces and police agencies.

At the same time, Venezuela has incorporated organized communities as members of integral prevention programs and in the creation of the National Public System for the Treatment of Addiction, all in accordance with the new Organic Law on Drugs, which has been recently adapted to the new threats faced by the government and was recently approved by the National Assembly and immediately put in force by President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela’s national public policies, in contrast to the hypocritical U.S. policies, are integral and equally address all of the issues pertaining to supply (the production and trafficking of illegal drugs) and demand (the use of illegal drugs).

The revolutionary government of President Hugo Chavez, as part of the shared responsibility that all countries of the world have, ratifies its commitment in the fight against the trafficking of illegal drugs through the application of sovereign policies and without receiving nor accepting pressures nor judgments based on imperialist laws and practices that the U.S. government uses in an attempt to play the role of the world’s policeman. For these reasons we reject this determination by President Obama, one that violates the principles of international cooperation and uses lies for its goal of permanent aggression against the Bolivarian Revolution, demonstrating its ignorance about the successful programs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in its fight against the scourge of drugs, which is evident to the national and international community and an objective on which we will continue making advances.

Caracas, September 17, 2010.

Ministry of People’s Power of Foreign Affairs