...that the Chavez government was involved in drug trafficking or countenanced it in any way.
They betray their own prejudice by, in one paragraph, asserting that "President Chavez has a firm grip on the Venezuelan justice system," while in the next paragraph stating the following: "...there is little doubt as to (Maklid's) involvement in the smuggling of cocaine. Three of his siblings — Aldala, Bessel and Alex — were detained in November 2008, at a family ranch with 380 kilos of cocaine. From that moment, Makled became a fugitive from Venezuelan justice, until his capture in the Colombian border city of Cucuta in August 2010."
http://interamericansecuritywatch.com/makleds-window-into-trafficking-in-venezuela-closing/
WHY, if the Chavez government was involved in drug trafficking, was the Chavez government detaining Maklid's siblings on cocaine charges and in hot pursuit of Maklid himself as a drug kingpin "fugitive"?
I am not saying there may not have been corrupt members of the Venezuelan national guard. That can happen in any country. What I'm saying is that the Chavez government, far from abetting the drug trade, was actively pursuing this drug lord, who fled Venezuela and was finally caught in a Colombia/Venezuela border town and RIGHTFULLY returned to Venezuela to be charged and tried. It doesn't sound to me like Maklid "kept (the Chavez) government in check"; it was rather the other way around--the Chavez government finally put a "check" on Maklid and his criminal organization.
As for the Miami Hairball and its report on Stratfor's report on Wikileaks cables, they are the biggest liars and propagandists of all the Corporate Press, on the Latin American Left and the Chavez government in particular. So, UPFRONT, I am highly skeptical of ANYTHING they assert. Apart from their bizarre characterization of Maklid as an "entrepreneur," how else are they coloring and distorting this matter and disinforming their news consumers? I don't trust them AT ALL (and don't have a lot of trust in Stratfor either), so I will have to read these cables myself.
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