By
Mérida, 12th December 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com)
Venezuelan counter narcotics efforts (click here) have yielded more drug seizures per year since the government broke with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2005, according to a high ranking military official.
Yesterday the head of the Strategic Operational Command of Venezuela's armed forces Major General Vladimir Padrino stated that 462 tonnes of illegal drugs have been seized by Venezuelan security forces since 2005, when the Venezuelan government severed ties with the DEA.
This brings the total amount of drug seizures over the last seven years to more than double the amount hauled in the last six years of Venezuela's partnership with the DEA, which Padrino put at just over 209 tonnes.
“Members of the FANB [Bolivarian National Armed Forces] have made a sustained effort on the front to fight drug trafficking,” Padrino said according to state news agency AVN....
2005 was a Bush Era.
By
Caracas, Venezuela, August 8, 2005
...Chavez assured that Venezuela (click here) would continue to combat drugs, but that it would do so without the help of the DEA. That is, Venezuelan officials would cooperate with other foreign drug enforcement agencies, such as those of Colombia, France, Spain, Russia, and China. “The DEA isn't absolutely necessary for the fight against drug trafficking,” said Chavez.
The reasons for the withdrawal are several. Chavez mentioned that, “in the case of the DEA we have detected intelligence infiltrations that threaten the security and defense of the country.” Last week, Venezuela’s Vice-President José Vicente Rangel suggested that the DEA was violating Venezuelan sovereignty when he said, “We have freed ourselves from the DEA for now and so [the relationship to the U.S.] has improved noticeably. We are placing the relationship on the level of sovereignty, which had been very affected by the less than clear relationship with the DEA.”...
