Former UN Deputy Secretary General Rejects US Lies Against Venezuela (Narco State)

Caracas, July 12, 2020.-This Sunday the former United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary General, Pino Arlacchi, rejected the calumnies promoted by the United States government against Venezuela, a US he described as a “narco-state” and accused of contributing to drug trafficking.

In an interview on the Italian website L’Antidiplomatico, Arlacchi indicated that he had been working for 40 years leading the program promoted by the UN on anti-drug affairs, and never had to visit Venezuela, because it was a country that was always “outside the cocaine trafficking circuits.”

“There is not the slightest evidence to support the slander that Venezuela has inundated the United States with cocaine in recent years. I have also been puzzled because I have been dealing with drugs for forty years, and I have never met Venezuela on my way. Before, during and after my position as Executive Director of UNODC (1997-2002), in the UN anti-drug program, I have never had the opportunity to visit that country, because Venezuela has always been outside the main traffic circuits of cocaine [which are] between Colombia, the main producing country, and the US, the main consumer,” stressed the former deputy secretary of the international body, according to a review by AVN on its website.

Tests

Arlacchi highlighted that the evidence of the Venezuelan fight against drug trafficking is in the UN documents and in the documents by the Administration and Control of Drugs (DEA) itself.

“In this DEA report, it is evident that 90% of the drug that enters the US comes from Colombia, while 6% comes from Peru, however; the origin of the other 4% of the illicit substances that enters the country is unknown, ” he said.

The US drug police have yet to identify its source, however. The former UN Deputy Secretary said that if Venezuela was involved “it would not have gone unnoticed.”

“There is no trace of Venezuela on any page of the two documents. And in no other material from the anti-crime agencies of the United States in the last 15 years (I know the subject very well) do they mention facts that may indirectly lead to the accusations launched against the legitimate president of Venezuela and against his government,” said the diplomat.

In the report presented by the UN, countries such as Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador are mentioned as places of drug transit to the United States.

In this regard, the former UN deputy secretary points out that these false accusations are used by the US as a new persecution against Venezuela, which ends up intensifying the coercive measures and the economic blockade imposed against the South American nation.

Details

Last Saturday the Venezuelan Minister for Interior Relations, Néstor Reverol, indicated that the different UN reports reveal that Venezuela is the fourth country in the world that has made the most drug seizures.

He noted that in recent years, Venezuela has seized 773 tons of drugs, representing an increase of 44%, since the DEA was expelled from the country.

He also reported that 368 illicit cultivation laboratories have been destroyed in the country from 1999 to 2005, making Venezuela free of drug cultivation for 14 years, thanks to permanent surveillance on the 2,219 km border with Colombia.

In addition, 158 people have been arrested for illicit drug trafficking and 21 citizens have been handed over to the United States and 38 to Colombia.

Featured image: UN flag, file photo.

(Ultimas Noticias)

Translated by JRE/EF