CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s lack of  cooperation with U.S. drug officials is undermining efforts to  stem cocaine trafficking, says a report from Washington that  has drawn fire from the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela, which has thousands of miles of coastline and a  rugged and porous border with the world’s top cocaine producer  Colombia, ended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement  Administration in 2005 after accusing it of spying.

The report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office  and seen by Reuters yesterday says drug corruption has  reached the ministerial level in Venezuela and decries a  “permissive” attitude to trafficking groups from Colombia.

“At a minimum, the lack of Venezuelan counternarcotics  cooperation with the United States is a significant impediment  to the U.S. capacity to interdict drugs en route to the United  States,” said the report, which is expected to be released next  week.

News of the report was met with anger by Chavez officials,  who have had better relations with U.S. President Barack Obama  than his predecessor George W. Bush and hoped Washington would  reassess criticism of Venezuela’s anti-drug strategy.

“Venezuela is engaged in an active fight against drug  trafficking, said Chavez’s ambassador to the United States  Bernardo Alvarez. He said Interpol and the Organization of the  American States praised the drug efforts of Venezuela, which  has cooperation agreements with 37 countries.

“Once again we see the use of these reports to discredit  governments with which the United States has political  differences,” he said.
Despite Venezuelan purchases of radar and other anti-drug  systems, the United States says 300 tonnes of cocaine passed  through the country last year, up from 50 tonnes in 2004.

Venezuela, which blames the drug trade on U.S. demand,  counters that its seizures are up, as well as confiscations of  drug runners’ assets and the extradition of suspected  traffickers to the United States and Colombia.

Yesterday, Venezuela extradited a suspected drug lord to  Colombia, a day after announcing the seizure of $1 million in  suspected drug cash from a light aircraft.

Almost no narcotics are grown in Venezuela but its cities  suffer from high rates of drug-related gun crime.
“The findings of this report have heightened my concern  that Venezuela’s failure to cooperate with the United States on  drug interdiction is related to corruption in that country’s  government,” said Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican  on the Foreign Relations Committee.

“The report’s findings require, at a minimum, a  comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Venezuela,” said  Lugar, who requested the GAO investigation last year.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s choice to head Washington’s  Latin American diplomacy, Arturo Valenzuela, told the Senate as  part of his confirmation that he wanted to see Venezuela’s  cooperation to tackle the flow of cocaine.