CARACAS - A Venezuelan statesman and possible challenger to Hugo Chavez's presidential re-election bid was convicted of publicly saying the country has turned into a drug-trafficking center, in what human-rights groups say is a government tactic to silence its foes through the country's judiciary.

Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, 68 years old, was convicted of spreading false information because he said last year on a television program that Venezuela "facilitates the business of drug trafficking."

Mr. Alvarez Paz, a Christian Democrat, was for many years one of the country's most prominent politicians, and served as governor of economic powerhouse Zulia state as well as president of the nation's lower house of congress.

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A Report From the General Accounting Office Blames Corruption and Lack of Cooperation With the U.S. for an Increase in Cocaine Trafficking. Venezuela's Ambassador Calls It a 'Poor Analysis.'

A breakdown in anti-drug cooperation between Venezuela and the United States has contributed to an alarming surge in cocaine trafficking from Venezuela, according to a report issued Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The volume of drugs passing through Venezuela more than quadrupled from 66 tons in 2004 to 287 tons in 2007, the GAO said. U.S.-Venezuelan counter-narcotics cooperation ended in 2005, as friction intensified between the Bush administration and leftist President Hugo Chavez.

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Government Corruption, Aid to Colombian Rebels Are Cited

BOGOTA, Colombia, -- A report for the U.S. Congress on drug smuggling through Venezuela concludes that corruption at high levels of President Hugo Chavez's government and state aid to Colombia's drug-trafficking guerrillas have made Venezuela a major launching pad for cocaine bound for the United States and Europe.

Since 1996, successive U.S. administrations have considered Venezuela a key drug-trafficking hub, the Government Accountability Office report says. But now, it says, the amount of cocaine flowing into Venezuela from Colombia, Venezuela's neighbor and the world's top producer of the drug, has skyrocketed, going from an estimated 60 metric tons in 2004 to 260 metric tons in 2007. That amounted to 17 percent of all the cocaine produced in the Andes in 2007.

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CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said Thursday that he was expelling the American ambassador, Patrick Duddy, giving him 72 hours to leave the country. Mr. Chavez took this step after he said his government had discovered an American-supported plot by military officers to topple him.

He also recalled his ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, and explained his decision by expressing solidarity with Bolivia's embattled president, Evo Morales, who on Wednesday expelled the American ambassador there, Philip S. Goldberg, accusing him of supporting rebellious groups in eastern Bolivia..

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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government said Tuesday it needs to see changes from Venezuela's government before the two countries can have a better relationship in the fight against drugs.

The comments followed Venezuelan President Hugo ChA!vez's warning that U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy risks expulsion after the ambassador said drug traffickers are taking advantage of the ''gap'' that exists between the United Stats and Venezuela.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the U.S. government is ''prepared to have a better relationship'' but needs ``to see some actions on the side of the Venezuelan government.''

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ELORZA, Venezuela -- Facing criticism that cocaine trafficking is out of control, Venezuela's government this year has embarked on an aggressive program to track drug-smuggling planes and destroy clandestine airstrips used by Colombian drug clans, Venezuelan drug enforcement and military officials said in a series of interviews.

In what appears to be a sharp shift from last year, Venezuelan aircraft and munitions experts have destroyed 157 dirt strips here in the grassy plains state of Apure, most of them in the last two weeks. The government has installed three new Chinese-made radar stations and plans to put up seven others that will completely cover Venezuelan airspace and permit authorities to track unidentified flights originating in neighboring Colombia.

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Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco, Alias Gordito, Also Faces Money Laundering and False Identity Charges, Officials Say.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Venezuela, Colombia and the United States finally appear to agree on something: that drug trafficking suspect Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco is a dangerous felon.

Gonzalez, arrested over the weekend in Venezuela by the nation's intelligence police force, will be tried in Venezuela on drug trafficking, money laundering and false identity charges, Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said at a news conference Monday.

Gonzalez, 48, has been indicted in New Jersey and New York federal courts on drug trafficking charges and is wanted in Colombia on suspicion of murder. He has been on an Interpol list of wanted suspects since 2005.

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Cartel Leader, With $5 Million Bounty on His Head, Found Shot to Death in Venezuela.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Authorities in Venezuela said Friday that Wilber Varela, the leader of Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel, had been found shot to death in the Venezuelan resort town of Merida.

The location of the killing underscores the evolution of drug trafficking in the region. Increasing amounts of Colombian cocaine destined for U.S. and European markets flow through Venezuela, and as much as one-third of all the narcotic powder is now thought to transit there.

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Analysts Said Chavez's Comments Before National Assembly Amounted To a Dangerous Endorsement and Might Be An Admission Of An Illegal Act

Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chavez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca -- the source of cocaine -- raising questions about the legality of his actions.

Chavez's comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as "armies."

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Venezuela said it would not allow U.S. agents to carry out counter-drug operations in the country, accusing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of being a "new cartel" that aids traffickers.

Spokesman Brian Penn said the U.S. Embassy categorically denies the accusation.

Washington has accused Venezuela of not cooperating in counter-drug efforts and says cocaine shipments are increasingly passing through the country from neighboring Colombia.

Justice Minister Pedro Carreno said Venezuela suspended cooperation with the DEA in 2005 after determining that "they were moving a large amount of drugs."

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BRUSSELS -- Latin American drug cartels are using commercial airports and ports in Venezuela as a "safe base" to ship increasing quantities of cocaine to Europe, according to U.S. antidrug czar John Walters. The comments by Mr. Walters, director of the White House's office of National Drug Control Policy, added to an escalating war of words between Venezuela and the U.S. over global narcotics trafficking. Mr. Walters urged European nations that have better relations with Venezuela than the U.S. has to persuade President Hugo Chavez to cooperate more in combating the narcotics trade. Mr. Walters's visit to Brussels also included talks with European Union officials on drug eradication in Afghanistan. Mr. Walters said he wasn't accusing Mr. Chavez or other senior Venezuelan officials of involvement in the trade.

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Widespread Corruption Led To Nation's Rise As Haven For Traffickers In Colombian Cocaine

CARACAS, Venezuela -- The airliner leaving Caracas for Mexico City carried a seemingly conspicuous cargo: one ton of Colombian cocaine stuffed into 25 bulky, nearly identical suitcases.

But the smugglers' baggage went untouched by the Venezuelan National Guard and airport police that day in early February. And it may not have been an oversight. Drug traffickers routinely pay a "tax" of $3,000 a kilo to security forces to move cocaine through the terminals at the busy Maiquetia airport and on to global markets, foreign and Venezuelan investigators and experts say.

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It Has Become A Major Transit Point For Colombian Cocaine Bound For Central America And Mexico, Authorities Say.

CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- The airliner leaving Caracas for Mexico City carried a seemingly conspicuous cargo: one ton of Colombian cocaine stuffed into 25 bulky, nearly identical suitcases.

But the smugglers' baggage went untouched by the Venezuelan National Guard and airport police that day in early February. And it may not have been an oversight. Drug traffickers routinely pay a "tax" of nearly $1,400 a pound to security forces to move cocaine through the terminals at the busy Maiquetia airport and on to global markets, foreign and Venezuelan investigators and experts say.

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Caracas, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has found a novel way to dispense foreign aid: by promising to underwrite coca production in Bolivia.

Officials in Caracas confirmed Wednesday that Venezuela will buy whatever legal products Bolivia can make from coca leaf, as part of that southern Andean nation's attempt to wean farmers from the cocaine industry.

Chavez's promise could finance the production of some 4,000 tons of coca leaf in Bolivia, Venezuelan officials say.

Possible coca-based products include soap, bread, herbal teas, toothpaste, unspecified medicines and cooking oils. No dollar amount for Venezuela's support has been announced. Three factories are under construction in Bolivia with Venezuelan financial and Cuban technical support, and production could begin this summer.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on the US ambassador in Caracas to retract his assertion that drug trafficking in the country is rising.

Mr Chavez said the comments were absolutely false and that a retraction would demonstrate that Washington is serious about wanting good relations.

William Brownfield said poor police collaboration was making Venezuela a preferred drug route to the Caribbean.

The comments follow recent improvements in relations between the two countries.

Mr Chavez said the US ambassador's claims were "a lack of respect for the truth" and said they were "absolutely false".

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The illegal drug trade has become a new front in the diplomatic war between the Ugo Chavez government in Caracas and the US, after the Bush administration this autumn formally named Venezuela as one of two countries that had failed to meet its obligations under international anti-narcotics agreements.

The verdict came in a White House report that identified Venezuela, along with Myanmar, as having "failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts " to stamp out drug trafficking. The findings were instantly rejected by Caracas, and experts here say they reflect political tensions rather than any sober assessment of the facts.

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Scandalous Absence Of Any Evidence Justifying U.S.Charge

While many in Washington were still choking on the sulfurous fog seeping down from New York, the White House's extraordinarily inappropriate report condemning Venezuela for failing "demonstrably" to meet international counter-narcotics agreements quietly slipped past the attention of the media, as well as the general public.The drug report, an alarmingly tendentious document relying on misleading evidence and innuendo, is little more than a deeply politicized anti-Hugo Chavez treatise than a professional inventory of Venezuelan drug policy.In other words, it is little better than a bogus indictment of a country where anti-drug performance falls well within the middle range of Latin American nations.

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CARACAS, Venezuela - Among those pleased by efforts to end an air traffic standoff between U.S. and Venezuelan officials are undoubtedly the drug traffickers working at the Venezuelan capital's Maiquetia international airport.

In the last month, the two sides have been squabbling over airline safety regulations and threatening to cancel some commercial flights. But they now seem close to working out a deal that would avert a major slowdown in air traffic between the nations and, in turn, keep business as usual for Maiquetia's drug traffickers.

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CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuela has freed a Dominican drug suspect identified by Washington as a priority drug-trafficking target, saying U.S. authorities would not agree to its terms for his extradition.

Judge Hector Coronado Flores dismissed a previous court order to extradite Mateo Holguin Ovalle and ruled that he be released, the Supreme Court said Monday in a statement on its website.

The decision derails a case cited earlier by U.S. officials as a prime example of cooperation with Venezuela in the drug war. But the two countries are now locked in a dispute over how to resume joint countertrafficking efforts paralyzed since last year.

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CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's vice president said Thursday that the United States was the world's biggest consumer of illegal drugs and had no "moral authority" to criticize Venezuela for failing to control narcotics.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday in its annual report on drug trafficking that it no longer considers Venezuela an ally in the war on drugs, worsening already tense relations between Caracas and Washington.

In a speech to Venezuela's Congress, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel responded that: "The country with the highest consumption of drugs is precisely the United States. Narcotrafficking and narcotraffickers are in the United States, not in Venezuela."

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