PM not surprised by claims of Caribbean drug links in US indictment of Maduro

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor - Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she is not sur­prised that the Unit­ed States’ in­dict­ment of Venezuela Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro con­tains al­le­ga­tions that Caribbean politi­cians were com­plic­it in the co­caine traf­fick­ing trade.

The Su­per­sed­ing In­dict­ment doc­u­ment, which con­tains the Grand Ju­ry charges against Maduro and oth­ers, claims that Caribbean politi­cians ben­e­fit­ed fi­nan­cial­ly from these traf­fick­ers in re­turn for pro­tec­tion against the law.

Asked for her re­ac­tion to this ac­cu­sa­tion, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “I’m not sur­prised at all. As the sto­ry con­tin­ues to un­fold, I have no doubt that many “re­spectable” and “cel­e­brat­ed” peo­ple across all sec­tors of so­ci­ety will be ex­posed."

The doc­u­ment specif­i­cal­ly states that the de­fen­dant, Maduro, and “cor­rupt” mem­bers of his regime en­abled cor­rup­tion fu­elled by drug traf­fick­ing through­out the re­gion.

It al­so says that co­caine traf­fick­ing through Hon­duras, Guatemala and Mex­i­co was un­der­pinned by sys­temic cor­rup­tion, with traf­fick­ers brib­ing politi­cians for pro­tec­tion, while those il­lic­it funds were used by po­lit­i­cal fig­ures to strength­en and en­trench their pow­er.

Turn­ing to the Caribbean, the doc­u­ment states, “So, too, were politi­cians along the 'Caribbean route' cor­rupt­ed by co­caine traf­fick­ers, who would pay them for pro­tec­tion from ar­rest and to al­low favoured traf­fick­ers to op­er­ate with im­puni­ty as they traf­ficked co­caine from Venezuela north to­wards the Unit­ed States.

“Thus, at every step, re­ly­ing on the pro­duc­ers in Colom­bia, nine trans­porters and dis­trib­u­tors in Venezuela, and re­cip­i­ents and re-dis­trib­u­tors on tran­ship­ment points north, the traf­fick­ers en­riched them­selves and their cor­rupt bene­fac­tors who pro­tect­ed and aid­ed them.”