Venezuela Government Unhelpful in War Against Drugs, U.S. Says

The Bush administration declared Thursday that Venezuela had failed to cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking, a move likely to worsen already strained relations between the countries.

The administration said the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had reduced anti-drug cooperation with the United States, replaced qualified drug officials with unqualified political loyalists and, through neglect, allowed more narcotics to flow through its borders to the United States and Europe.

Venezuela “has been a disappointment,” John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told reporters, adding that Chavez “acts as if he no longer wants a productive relationship with the United States.”

The administration’s move, part of a congressionally required report, came amid continuing friction between Washington and Chavez, a populist with strong ties to Cuba who has expressed strong anti-U.S. sentiment. Washington has charged that Chavez is a regional troublemaker who is undermining democratic institutions in Venezuela and threatening to destabilize neighboring countries through support for radical leftist groups.

Venezuelan officials, anticipating the move in recent weeks, have complained publicly that the United States has no right to label others as pariahs. An official at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Thursday’s declaration.

Although it does not involve financial penalties, branding Venezuela uncooperative in the fight against drugs is a symbolic slap that is certain to anger the Chavez government.

The U.S. is required to cut off aid to countries that do not cooperate in the anti-drug effort. In this case, the White House waived the requirement so it could continue to fund a series of small programs aimed at developing political parties and other democratic institutions in Venezuela.

That move also may annoy Chavez: The administration hopes to continue to fund groups that may include some of the Venezuelan president’s political opponents, analysts said.

The move “reflects a bilateral relationship that has steadily deteriorated,” said Peter DeShazo, who was the State Department’s second-ranking diplomat for Latin America until last year and is now director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

A significant amount of Colombian cocaine and heroin passes through lightly protected borders into Venezuela en route to the United States, officials say. In past years, Venezuela has cooperated with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration efforts to monitor and impede the flow of drugs from laboratories in the Colombian jungle. Those efforts have suffered as relations between Washington and Caracas have grown increasingly strained.

In July, Venezuela complained that DEA agents were spying on the government, and suspended some cooperative undercover operations, including so-called controlled deliveries, or sting operations, involving drug shipments originating in or passing through the country. The U.S. has since suspended visas of two Venezuelan national guard officers suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.

Venezuelan officials have recently said they would like to build a new relationship. U.S. law enforcement agents who asked not to be named expressed dissatisfaction in interviews this week over a new U.S.-Venezuela “working agreement.” It gives U.S. agents less latitude in carrying out anti-drug operations compared with British and Russian agents fighting organized crime there.

In a news conference with Walters, Nancy J. Powell, the acting assistant secretary of State for narcotics and law enforcement, said Thursday’s declaration resulted from the Venezuelan government’s refusal to cooperate in anti-drug efforts and data-sharing programs and from a “negative publicity campaign” against the DEA.

The U.S. process that determines whether a country is deemed to be cooperating in the war on drugs has long been controversial among Latin American officials who question whether the nation that is responsible for the lion’s share of demand should be censuring others.

Some analysts wondered whether the U.S. “name and shame” approach would bring more cooperation or further complicate a troubled relationship.

“Whatever substance there is to Venezuelan authorities’ cooperating or not will be different to extract from the now-spiraling political conflict between the U.S. and Venezuela,” said John Walsh, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America. “The drug war is now one more politicized issue in U.S.- Venezuela relations.”

Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank, said the relationship between the countries had been repeatedly buffeted by events, including a comment last month by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that the U.S. should assassinate Chavez.

“Given the whole political climate ... it’s going to be like getting Humpty Dumpty together again when it comes to U.S.-Venezuelan cooperation,” Erikson said.

The annual drug report named one other country, Myanmar, as failing to cooperate on anti-drug work. The nation has also been named in previous years.

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Richter reported from Washington and Kraul from Coral Gables, Fla.