Former US official: Trump’s war on drugs is a ‘pretext’
Al Jazeera’s Charles Samuel Shapiro said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday: “These measures are an excuse. If you look at the US government’s reports, the amount of drugs that come into the US from Venezuela is very small, so declaring these people as ‘terrorists and drug traffickers’ is meaningless.”
He stressed: “Cocaine is not produced in Venezuela. This is Colombian cocaine that passes through Venezuela, most of it goes to Europe, not to the US. Some of it enters the US. Fentanyl is not produced in Venezuela. Fentanyl is produced in Mexico.”
Referring to Trump’s dual approach, Shapiro said that the US president announced yesterday that he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the US after being extradited from Honduras last year on drug trafficking charges.
Shapiro reiterated: The whole drug trafficking story is just an excuse.
According to IRNA, as tensions between Washington and Caracas escalate and speculations of a US military attack on Venezuela increase, US President Donald Trump announced in a message on the social network Truth Social that the airspace of Venezuela and its surrounding areas should be considered completely closed.
The US also, without any evidence, on November 24 (Azar 3), designated the Cartel de los Soles, an alleged group, as a foreign terrorist organization and imposed sanctions against it; a group that Washington claims is led by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and a number of senior officials in the country. Venezuela declared the existence of such a cartel a “ridiculous lie” and an excuse for illegal interference in its internal affairs.
Maduro also responded to Washington’s actions on Wednesday (December 25) during his speech at a large rally held to mark the 200th anniversary of the Peruvian people’s gift of the sword to Simon Bolivar. He said in military uniform and alongside members of the government and commanders of the country’s national armed forces: “We must defend every inch of this land against any imperialist threat or aggression, whenever and wherever necessary.”