GBRV RESPONDS TO CRITICAL GAO REPORT ON NARCOTICS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 001073 SIPDIS HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2018 TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL SNAR VE SUBJECT: GBRV RESPONDS TO CRITICAL GAO REPORT ON NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING REF: CARACAS 935 CARACAS 00001073 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Darnall Steuart for Reason 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice (MIJ) Tarek El-Aissami and Director of the National Anti-Drug Office (ONA),Colonel Nestor Reverol, addressed the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) on July 21 following the release of the GAO report on declining U.S. - Venezuelan counter-narcotics cooperation. While both officials repeated the claim that the GBRV was seizing more drugs since breaking relations with the DEA in 2005. Minister El-Aissami called the GAO report the cynical and hypocritical product of a prideful empire. In addition, El-Aissami made the bizarre claim that marijuana was the most profitable sector of U.S. agri-business. Reverol used the 2009 United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report to tout Venezuela's position as a major force in drug seizures. Reverol overlooked that the same UNODC report had identified Venezuela as, "the most important cocaine transit country." The GBRV selectively interprets UNODC reports and other non-USG figures. End Summary. FACTS ALL COME WITH POINTS OF VIEW ¶2. (SBU) Tarek El-Aissami and Nestor Reverol addressed the Venezuelan National Assembly on July 21 to denounce the recently released GAO report on declining bilateral CN cooperation. These GBRV officials continue to claim that Venezuelan drug seizures have increased since dramatically reducing cooperation with the DEA in 2005. El-Aissami, the more ideological of the two officials, claimed that U.S. drug seizures have been on a steady decline since the 1990s and the purpose of the GAO's, "cynical" and "hypocritical" report was to discredit the sovereign policies of the GBRV. The reality is that although the U.S. percentage of cocaine seized has been in a steady decline, it is because partner nations have been capturing a larger share before it arrives in the U.S.. Over the last 20 years the U.S. has the seized the most cocaine in 14 years and had the second largest seizures in the six other years. Shading the truth even further, El-Aissami claimed that during the DEA hadn't detained a single drug trafficker during their last four years of working in Venezuela, while Venezuela had captured 39 important cartel leaders since the 2005 rupture. This ignores the fact the DEA has no powers of arrest or detention in any of the countries where they operate and that during those four years DEA help build 293 cases against drug trafficking in Venezuela. El-Aissami then trotted out the old GBRV canard of marijuana being the largest cash crop in American agri-business. The most lurid claim by El-Aissami was of an aircraft graveyard in Nevada where any person could walk in, buy a plane and fly off without any paperwork or controls. McCarren airport, in Las Vegas, does operate a graveyard of sorts for commercial airliners that are out of rotation or awaiting resale; but it is unimaginable that any of these multi-million dollar aircraft would be sold sans paperwork. FACTS DON'T DO WHAT I WANT THEM TO ¶3. (SBU) In his address to the AN, more the pragmatic COL. Reverol of ONA recognized Venezuela's geographic challenges and tried to dismiss Venezuela's position as a drug transit country by citing the 2009 World Drug Report that showed 70% of Colombian cocaine traveling by the eastern Pacific and only 20% via the western Caribbean. However, Reverol overlooks the calculus that, based on the same report, a possible 120 MT are transiting Venezuela. Furthermore, the report lists Venezuela as, "the most important cocaine transit country." Reverol proudly points out that Venezuela has been one of the top seizure countries for the last four years of the report. While this is true, because of a two year lag in compiling data, half of those years were when Venezuela was fully engaged with the DEA. By this year's report Venezuela, with 31.8 MT, had slipped from third to seventh place, behind Costa Rica. Reverol claimed that Venezuela had to invent it's own drug testing kits because the USG had blocked their sale to Venezuela. DEA Caracas is unaware of any test kit ban in Venezuela. Tellingly, the UNODC 2009 report points out, and not for the first time, that the consumption of heroin and cocaine are on the increase in Venezuela. The same report shows that, although not a significant producer of drugs, the GBRV has not eradicated a single poppy or coca bush since between 2008 and CARACAS 00001073 002.2 OF 002 2005 when cooperating with the DEA when almost 200 hectare were destroyed. ¶4. (C) Comment: Any reports from the United States are dismissed as imperialistic meddling in their internal affairs. Although outdated, the UNODC World Drug Report provides plenty of ammunition to show that Venezuela did a much better job in CN when it cooperated with the United States than going it alone. DUDDY