Venezuela rejects US criticisms of 'insubstantial efforts' in drug trade fight

Venezuela has rejected US criticism over its fight against international drug trafficking, after Washington said the South American country had "failed demonstrably" for a fifth year running.

The White House said in an annual report on Friday that Venezuela, along with Bolivia and Burma, had not made substantial efforts in the last 12 months to meet its obligations under global counternarcotics agreements. Drug trafficking has been a thorny issue between Washington and Caracas since at least 2005, when then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, expelled US drug enforcement agents and accused them of spying on his "Bolivarian Revolution".

"We strongly reject the accusation … the United States is trying to ignore our government's sovereign policies," said Alejandro Keleris, the head of Venezuela's national anti-drug office, late on Saturday, in response to the US report.

Since the start of this year, Keleris said, Venezuela had arrested more than 6,400 people for trafficking and seized almost 37,000kg (80,000lb) of various drugs. Since 2006, he added, it had captured more than 100 drug gang bosses and handed over 75 to other countries, including the US.

Drug enforcement experts say Venezuela's location on South America's Caribbean and Atlantic seaboards makes it a preferred route for planes and ships carrying Colombian cocaine to the United States and Europe via central America and Africa. Previous US annual reports on trafficking have also denounced Venezuela's "weak judicial system" and its "generally permissive and corrupt environment".

"I hereby designate Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela as countries that have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to make substantial efforts to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements," President Barack Obama said in the White House's 2013 report.

The three countries appear in the US report on a list of more than 20 countries – including Afghanistan, Colombia and Mexico – that are described as "major drug transit and/or major illicit drug-producing countries". The government of President Nicolas Maduro, who won an election in April that followed Chavez's death from cancer, says anti-narcotics cooperation has actually improved since 2005, when the US drug enforcement agents were kicked out.

Last year, Venezuelan security forces working with Colombian officers and US and British intelligence agencies caught one of the most-wanted Colombian kingpins – Daniel "Crazy" Barrera – during an operation in a Venezuelan border city. In July, Spanish police arrested Brian Charrington, a British citizen they described as one of Europe's top 10 most-wanted criminals, and dismantled a transatlantic cocaine-smuggling ring after a three-year investigation with police in Venezuela and Colombia.

In one possible sign of rapprochement, Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States said earlier this year that the government was considering a US proposal for the return of its anti-drug agents.