BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Most illegal flights hauling Colom-bian drugs to Central America and the United States are now leaving from Venezuela, Colombia’s Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said yesterday.
The charge could further raise tensions between the Andean neighbors currently embroiled in a diplomatic standoff that has begun to damage bilateral trade of some $7 billion a year.
Traffickers in Colombia, still the world’s No. 1 cocaine producer, use Venezuela as a transit route to reach markets in the United States and Europe, and also smuggle through the Caribbean, Africa, Central America and Mexico.
“The number of radar tracks that are detected coming out of Colombia is marginal. Unfortunately the number of tracks detected and that end in the area around Honduras … pass through Venezuelan territory,” Silva told reporters.
U.S. authorities say Venezuela has become a major transit route for Colombian traffickers. Traffickers now use shipping routes and even submarines to transport cocaine from Colombia across the Pacific to Central America and the Mexican coast.
The government of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, a fierce U.S. critic, has accused Colombian state agents of allowing drugs to be smuggled through his country. He rejects charges his government fails to tackle drug trafficking.
Ties between Caracas and Bogota have been roiled by a decision by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to allow U.S. military forces more access to Colombian bases as part of cooperation to fight drug traffickers and leftist rebels.
