Venezuela and Bolivia reject U.S. accusation on fight against drug trafficking

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Thursday (16) Venezuela and Bolivia rejected a report presented by the United States regarding the policy of both countries in their fight against drug trafficking during the last 12 months.

President Joe Biden argued this week that Venezuela and Bolivia have not complied with their anti-drug obligations under international agreements on the issue, saying they “have failed demonstrably”.

“It is questionable that the country that disputes the world’s financial hegemony, whose banking system executes a false policy to control the laundering of assets from drug production and trafficking, tries to give lessons to the international community,” said the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.

Maduro’s government is very critical of Washington. It maintains that his country has been a victim of drug trafficking because it is between one of the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Colombia, and the main consumer, the United States.

Meanwhile, Bolivian Government Minister Eduardo Del Castillo stressed that the government of leftist President Luis Arce has managed to eradicate more than 6,000 hectares of coca plants, the primary raw material for cocaine production, and has dismantled some criminal organizations.

“We reject this report because it has been elaborated unilaterally,” Del Castillo added to journalists and pointed out that the United States had not carried out investigations in the country as multilateral organizations focused on the fight against drug trafficking usually do.

“We have a strategy, we have a plan, and we have a horizon, a frontal fight against drug trafficking,” he said.