I remember a comment I had in a conversation with Moises Naím a few years ago: “notice how drugs from South America are now entering Europe via Africa. Research it and see…” I started to investigate the topic and wrote an article titled “The Venezuela Connection,” published in RealClearPolitics, where I detailed how European and African authorities were intercepting increasing shipments of drugs all sharing a common origin: On April 11, 2006, Mexican authorities seized 5.5 tonnes of high-purity cocaine at Ciudad del Carmen airport. On August 3, 2005, Dutch tax authorities and the harbor police confiscated 4.6 tonnes of cocaine in Rotterdam, the largest haul ever in the Netherlands. On October 13, 2005, Spanish police seized 3.5 tons of cocaine from a fishing boat headed for Spain. On September 16, 2005, 691 kilograms of cocaine were seized in the Tuscan port of Livorno, Italy. On December 14, 2004, 1.141 tonnes of cocaine were captured in two operations in Kenya, marking the largest seizure in Africa. On May 16, 1999, Saudi prince Nayef bin Sultan bin Fawwaz Al-Shaalan smuggled 1.993 tonnes of cocaine into Paris on his private plane under diplomatic immunity.
Beyond these significant drug hauls, which are often the largest ever made in their respective countries, countless individuals have been arrested in European and North American airports for attempting to smuggle drugs. It is no coincidence that all the aforementioned shipments, large or small, originated in Venezuela; neither is it the regularity of the arrests, which are on an ever-increasing curve.
Venezuela, under Hugo Chavez’s rule, has essentially become a gangster’s paradise…
It was no longer Colombia but rather Venezuela, from where the cartels were dispatching their goods.
The late Hugo Chavez, with his ceaseless stream of scandals, significantly contributed to overshadowing reports of how Venezuela had become the country from which the bulk of cocaine produced in the region entered international markets. The United Nations World Drug Report stated in 2010 that “between 2006 and 2008, over half of the maritime cocaine shipments detected heading to Europe originated from Venezuela.” Similarly, Africa became an alternative destination in the drug transit route to Europe. To reinforce the point, how can one forget Alexander Schmidt from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), reporting from Gao (Mali) that a Boeing from Venezuela carrying up to 10 tonnes of cocaine was set ablaze by traffickers after it crashed on November 5, 2009? It seems the issue isn’t limited to maritime routes.
Just a few days ago, global media reported a 1.3-tonne cocaine shipment discovered on an Air France flight, also originating from Venezuela. Can anyone argue that the events in Mali and France are isolated incidents? What about the 5.5 tonnes of high-purity cocaine confiscated at Ciudad del Carmen airport in April 2006? The wrecked Boeing in Mali didn’t depart from Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, but the Air France flight and the aircraft transporting over 5 tonnes did. How can such a large quantity of drugs possibly sneak into the cargo compartments of commercial planes at the main airport of a country without authorities noticing? And if the size of that airport poses unavoidable challenges in monitoring, what can be said about the 1,200 kilos of drugs loaded onto a small plane in 2012 at La Carlota airbase, located practically in central Caracas and controlled by Venezuelan military?
No, the issue of increasing drug trafficking from Venezuela cannot be easily excused. A government that has had no qualms about supporting Colombian narcoterrorist groups, such as FARC, has little credibility in explaining this phenomenon, which is neither coincidental nor can be attributed to “destabilizing factors,” as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has often been blamed by both Chavez and his successor. Alfredo Meza recently noted in El País that the “magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, Eladio Aponte Aponte, accused U.S. officials of having connections to drug trafficking… The magistrate claimed he received pressure from the high government to free a subordinate of commander Pedro Maggino, accused in 2005 of the appearance of two tonnes of drugs in a battalion in Lara state.” What Meza didn’t mention was that Aponte Aponte pointed to Antonio José Morales Rodríguez (alias “el catre”), godson and trusted collaborator of Hugo Chavez, as a source of said pressures. In other words, when the president’s godson is protecting drug traffickers, what can be expected from the country’s highest court? We already know what to expect:
– Ignoring detailed military reports of narcoguerilla camps in Venezuela, like those presented by General Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez and later by General Manuel Rosendo to Hugo Chavez in 2001 and 2002 respectively;
– Photos of a smiling Hugo Chavez on the steps of Miraflores, embracing Ivan Marquez and Piedad Cordoba, alongside various declarations supporting FARC;
– Repeatedly severing relations with Colombia – Venezuela’s second largest trading partner – due to FARC;
– Promotions and appointments to high-ranking positions for individuals designated by the U.S. government as collaborators of Colombian narcoterrorist organizations, as seen in the case of the “cartel of the suns,” including Henry Rangel Silva, Hugo Carvajal, Cliver Alcala, and Ramon Rodriguez Chacin;
– Persecution and imprisonment of officers who dare prioritize the law over political arrangements with criminals sought by international justice, like the case of Lieutenant Colonel José Humberto Quintero, who was imprisoned for over four years and tortured for the “crime” of arresting Rodrigo Granda in Caracas, also known as the “chancellor of FARC.”
I also remember the response of former Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon when I asked him in 2010 what he thought about Venezuela’s dominance as a departure point for most of the cocaine produced in Colombia, and Colombia’s position regarding the regime’s support and collusion with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The question certainly caused discomfort and Santos evaded answering concretely.
It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge, and regardless of how uncomfortable it is or how much it’s denied, Venezuela has become a narco-state. Those who should be fighting against the terrible scourge of drugs are part of the business, part of the problem, and those who fight against drug trafficking end up paying a very high price, no matter their rank. As long as blame continues to be placed on the DEA or the Empire, instead of upholding and enforcing the law, the “traquetos” will continue to do as they please in Venezuela.