LatinNews Daily Report - 24 September 2013

SECURITY | Another big drugs seizure as Venezuelan opposition bemoans a ‘narco state’. Over 540 kilos of cocaine were seized by the Bolivarian national guard (GNB, military police) in Venezuela’s western state of Zulia (bordering Colombia), Venezuela’s national anti-drugs office (ONA) announced on 23 September. News of the seizure came just days after the GNB was implicated in a massive cocaine smuggling operation busted by French authorities in Paris. An ONA statement said that the drugs were being transported hidden in a tanker lorry en route to Falcón state, which sits on the Caribbean. Yesterday Venezuela’s opposition leader, Henrique Capriles Radonski, led a chorus of opposition calls for the government to go after ‘the big fish’ and accused the interior & justice ministry of hiding behind “pompous declarations” over the Paris case. Rhetorically, Capriles asked whether Venezuela was a narco state. “Is this a narco state? Some people are saying we are a narco state. Here, vox populi holds that narco trafficking is having a ball in our country”, he tweeted.