2017:The U.S. Designated Venezuela’s Vice President as a Narcotics Kingpin                                                                 No Evidence was Presented

Tareck El Aissami was born on November 12, 1974 in El Vigia, Merida, Venezuela. His parents were immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. El Aissami attended the University of the Andes in Merida where he was elected President of the student union in 2001. After graduating magna cum laude, El Aissami entered politics as a follower of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. He was elected to the National Assembly in 2005. From 2007 to 2008 he served in the Ministry of the Interior as the Vice Minister of Public Security. In September 2008, President Chavez appointed El Aissami as Minister of the Interior and Justice serving in that position until October 2012.He served as the Governor of Aragua from 2012 until 2017.

President Nicolas Maduro appointed El Aissami as Vice President on January 4, 2017. If the then-proposed Presidential recall election were to occur in 2017, he would have become the President of Venezuela.

On February 13, 2017 El Aissami was sanctioned by the Trump Administration’s Treasury Department under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act. US officials accused him of facilitating drug shipments from Venezuela to Mexico.[1] The US action prohibited US citizens and businesses from dealing with him. Any violators of the US order were subject to a felony indictment. The Treasury Department stated that it had frozen tens of millions of dollars of Aissami’s assets in US financial institutions. [2] In reporting on the US charges, the New York Times noted that:” The Treasury announcement included no evidence for the accusations.” [2]

In 2017, government-opposition legislators had a majority of the seats in the National Assembly. The Assembly voted in favor of opening an investigation into El Aissami’s alleged drug trafficking. Freddy Guevara, Vice President of the National Assembly, asked the US government for the “precise information that backs up the claim so that the National Assembly can carry out an inquiry to remove El Aissami.” [3] The US sent no information.

El Aissami denied any criminal wrongdoing. In an open letter, published as an advertisement on February 22 in the New York Times, El Aissami stated: “I have no assets or accounts in the United States or in any country in the world, and it is both absurd and pathetic that an American administrative body- without presenting any evidence-adopts a measure to freeze goods and assets that I do not own at all.”

Aissami pointed out that he served as Minister of the Interior from 2008 until 2012.During those years, the Venezuelan anti-drug authorities captured 102 heads of drug trafficking organizations. Of these 102 captured drug lords, 21 were deported to the United States and 36 to Columbia in accordance with their requests. The US government sent letters congratulating Aissami for capturing and deporting the drug lords. 

President Maduro charged that the US was conducting a sustained campaign to destabilize Venezuela and discredit Venezuelan authorities by undermining the image of national executives.[4] The Foreign Ministry charged that the U.S. actions were meant to derail bilateral relations.

1.U.S. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions Prominent Drug Trafficker Tareck El Aissami and His Primary Frontman Samark Lopez Bello, February 13, 2017

2.New York Times, How a Politician Accused of Drug Trafficking Became Venezuela’s Vice President, February 16, 2017

3. Venezuelanalysis, Venezuelan VP Releases Open Letter to US Treasury as Parliament Demands Resignation, February 23, 2017

4. New York Times, Venezuela Closes Ranks Around Sanctioned Vice President, Tareck El Aissami, February 14, 2017

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