Drug trafficking to and from Venezuela increased more than 50% with President Nicolás Maduro, a US military official on issues in the Caribbean and Central and South America said on Thursday, denouncing Maduro’s ties with organized crime.
Admiral Craig Faller, head of the Southern Command, said that Maduro, in power since 2013, has favored the activity of drug traffickers and criminals, and has given refuge to terrorist groups, whom he accused of “destabilizing” the region.
We are seeing an increase in drug trafficking from Venezuela that is helped and prompted by the illegitimate Maduro regime,”
Faller said at the opening of the Conference of Security of the Caribbean Nations in Miami.
In fact, the Maduro regime has a negative impact on all aspects of security in this hemisphere. All the challenges are made worse by the Venezuelan crisis,”
he added.
Speaking to reporters, Faller said the Maduro government has enriched itself at the cost of drug trafficking.
There is more than a 50% increase in drug trafficking in and through Venezuela, and Maduro and his cronies are filling their pockets in collusion with drug trafficking,”
he said, without specifying a period of time for this increase.
Faller said that “terrorist groups,” such as the Colombian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents of the extinct FARC that did not accept the 2016 peace process in Colombia, have refuge in Venezuela, where they can operate to threaten and destabilize the region, threatening good neighbors and democracies like Colombia.
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on 27 entities and 22 individuals for drug trafficking linked to Venezuela, including the current Minister of Industries and former vice president, Tareck el Aissami, former chief financial intelligence Pedro Luis Martín, and businessman Walid Makled.
The United States, which is leading the international pressure to force Maduro out of power, is among the more than 50 countries that have recognized opposition leader and parliamentary chief Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.