{"id":208,"date":"2015-05-22T14:40:04","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T14:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/democracycuba.com\/Blog\/?p=208"},"modified":"2018-06-28T15:41:11","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T15:41:11","slug":"venezuela-rejects-attacks-against-cabello-government-launches-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democracycuba.com\/Blog\/venezuela-rejects-attacks-against-cabello-government-launches-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela Rejects Attacks against Cabello, Government Launches Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Disdado\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Diosdado Cabello<\/p>\n

By Rachael Boothroyd<\/strong><\/p>\n

venezuelanalysis.com<\/p>\n

Caracas, May 21st 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan members of parliament and spokespeople for state institutions have come together to vehemently reject a Wall Street Journal report which claimed that National Assembly President, Diosdado Cabello, is being probed by US federal authorities for alleged links to international drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

Featured on Monday, the Wall Street Journal article echoes recent reports in the Spanish newspaper ABC that allege that Cabello is implicated in an international drug ring, citing the top legislator’s ex-bodyguard Leamsy Salazar, who has defected to the United States.<\/p>\n

The article also alleges that federal prosecutors in New York and Miami and an \u201celite\u201d Drug Enforcement Agency Unit have opened up an official investigation into the claims, based on interviews with renegade Bolivarian officials as well as Venezuelan and Colombian drugs traffickers under arrest in the US.<\/p>\n

On Monday evening, the government hit back at the report, entitled \u201cVenezuelan Officials Suspected of Turning Country into Global Cocaine Hub,\u201d branding rumours of the US investigation as yet another international rightwing campaign aimed at smearing the Revolution\u2019s standing on the global stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will activate a national and international campaign in defence of Diosdado Cabello\u2026 just as we defend our country from rightwing attacks,\u201d announced the president on his weekly TV show, \u201cIn Contact with Maduro\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever goes after Diosdado Cabello is going after me. We cannot accept these slanders against him\u2026 He is one of the loyal cadres (to the revolution)\u201d.<\/p>\n

So far, the rumours hinge on the testimony of Cabello\u2019s ex-bodyguard, yet the veracity of his claims has been widely questioned due to reports that the statement was offered in exchange for a U.S. visa and asylum.<\/p>\n

The accusations have caused huge controversy at home and abroad, having targeted one of the most powerful and steadfast loyalist to the Bolivarian Revolution.<\/p>\n

As former socialist leader Hugo Chavez\u2019s righthand man, ex-soldier Cabello participated in Chavez\u2019s underground Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement 200 (MBR-200) and participated in the attempted 1992 coup against the repressive government of Carlos Andres Perez that launched Chavez into the public spotlight. Cabello also briefly assumed the presidency of the country during the April 2002 US-sponsored coup which ousted Chavez for a period of 47 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am unyielding in the face of any media aggression\u2026 I will not surrender\u2026 not today or tomorrow,\u201d confirmed Cabello on his weekly television programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to express my love and gratitude, up until my last breath, to our people. Thank you for so many messages of support and solidarity in the face of these attacks, which are not against Diosdado Cabello, but against the country\u2019s institutions\u201d.<\/p>\n

ABC and the Venezuelan press which republished the reports are all currently being sued for defamation by Cabello, who re-issued a previous challenge to his detractors on Wednesday to \u201cpublicly show proof\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) also echoed Cabello\u2019s sentiments that the press reports constitute an attempt to undermine Venezuela\u2019s state institutions internationally, and are linked to ongoing efforts to unseat the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claim to reflect situations that aren\u2019t based on any plausible or possible foundations,\u201d replied the head of the TSJ, Judge Gladys Guti\u00e9rrez.<\/p>\n

The accusations against Cabello are just the latest of many that have been levelled at Venezuelan government officials by US authorities in recent years. Others accused of being involved in international drugs trafficking ops include Venezuelan army general and diplomat Hugo Carvajal and former Minister of the Interior and Justice, Tarek El-Aissami.<\/p>\n

Carvajal was controversially arrested last year by Aruba authorities during a visit to the island on the petition of the US, who quickly moved to request his extradition. He was eventually released after an Aruba judge finally overruled the arrest and declared it illegal under international treaties.<\/p>\n

The latest reports are likely to further isolate the US and its increasingly discredited Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the region, which is banned from operating within Venezuela and Bolivia. Both countries severed ties with the DEA in recent years on the basis that the agency was spying on their progressive governments and paradoxically allied with international drug smuggling networks in the region.<\/p>\n

The DEA courted further controversy earlier in March this year when the release of secret files revealed that DEA agents working in Colombia had engaged in illicit sex parties with prostitutes, including children, paid for by Colombian drugs cartels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diosdado Cabello By Rachael Boothroyd venezuelanalysis.com Caracas, May 21st 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan members of parliament and spokespeople for state institutions have come together to vehemently reject a Wall Street Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nVenezuela Rejects Attacks against Cabello<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Venezuelan members of parliament and spokespeople for state institutions have come together to reject a Wall Street Journal report on drug trafficking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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