Former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs under George W. Bush, Roger Noriega, asserted in multiple interviews this week that the United States has ample evidence that high-ranking government Venezuelan officials are involved in cocaine trafficking, and that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has used drug money to run his campaign.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to the announcement of expanded sanctions on his regime on behalf of the Obama administration yesterday in an extensive public broadcast in which he repeatedly called President Obama “nefarious” and claimed the United States had organized a false-flag style operation to make it appear that Maduro had bombed his own government buildings.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is calling for his government to draft a blacklist of Venezuelans exiled in the United States calling for Congress to impose further sanctions on his socialist regime for both economic and political crimes, as well as ties to drug trafficking.
A Venezuelan defector says his former boss, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, runs a secret drug cartel. Leamsy Salazar was a bodyguard and former head of security for Diosdado Cabello, the 2nd most powerful man in Venezeula’s socialist party.
The former head of security for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and for current President of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello has defected to the United States and plans on filing a formal complaint against Cabello for leading a drug smuggling ring.
