![\"Cabello](\"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Cabello-threatens-to-sue-foreign-newspapers-610x306.jpg\")
The leader of Venezuela’s congress says he will bring a lawsuit in the U.S. against news outlets that report he is the subject of a drug trafficking probe.<\/h1>\nThe leader of Venezuela’s congress says he will bring a lawsuit in the U.S. against news outlets that report he is the subject of a drug trafficking probe.<\/h1>\nVenezuela’s second-ranking politician Diosdado Cabello has threatened to sue foreign newspapers for defamation after the Wall Street Journal and ABC described reported allegations being leveled against him by U.S. law enforcement officials in connection with alleged involvement in narcotrafficking.<\/p>\n
Acoocrding to LatinTimes,<\/em> Cabello has already sued three Venezuelan news outlets for reproducing information from those oversees papers, arguing that they shouldn\u2019t have printed the accusations against him unless there was concrete evidence of his involvement proof.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve already sued here in Venezuela, but I\u2019m also going to sue in Spain, and I\u2019m also going to sue in the United States,\u201d Cabello, Venezuela\u2019s National Assembly Speaker said on an national TV broadcast on Sunday.\u201cIt cannot be that in Spain the press can do this \u2013 smear someone without any type of proof. In the United States this cannot happen.\u201d<\/p>\n No smoking gun has been presented along with accusations that Cabello is connected to drug trafficking in Venezuela, despite reports that a defecting bodyguard would add to a pool of witness that will allegedly implicate the socialist leader. That defector, Leamsy Salazar alleged that Cabello ran the \u201cArmy of the Sun,\u201d also known as Los Soles, allegedly a paramilitary organization that interfaces between the Venezuelan military and international traffickers of drugs, especially cocaine. Yet there\u2019s little evidence Los Soles even exists appear to be nothing more than a rumor. Supporters of Cabello and the Maduro-led Chavista government were quick to condemn the articles as merely grasping at straws.<\/p>\n \u201cThese unverified accusations were subsequently published as fact by ABC Espa\u00f1a and other right-wing newspapers, prompting Cabello to seek legal action for libel,\u201d wrote Lucas Koerner, for the pro-Chavismo blog Venezuela Analysis.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal, however, defended the article.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been many indications that high-ranking officials in the Venezuelan government have been involved in drugs for a long time [….] Is there a direct link? I don\u2019t know,\u201d Jos\u00e9 de C\u00f3rdoba, one of the WSJ authors, told Jorge Ramos on Fusion\u2019s show \u201cAmerica.\u201d<\/p>\n Is Diosdado the target of an unjustified smear campaign waged by U.S. law enforcement? Is he just trying to censor press around the world the way that his government has done domestically? Both may be true.<\/p>\n In 2005, under the leadership of Chavez, Diosdado, and others, Venezuela kicked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) out of the country. Top Venezuelan officials, fighting off both real and possibly perceived coups, accused the DEA of collaborating with the CIA. It\u2019s a strange accusation; it\u2019s no secret that the two agencies share information. None the less, Diosdado argues that drug apprehensions have gone up since the DEA was ejected.<\/p>\n The U.S. has had long-running tensions with Venezuela. Add to that the DEA\u2019s tenuous existence in Latin America (they\u2019ve been kicked out of Bolivia, and scaled back in Colombia), and it\u2019s conceivable that they\u2019re extra motivated to take down Venezuelans that they — perhaps genuinely — believe are trafficking drugs. No matter the DEA\u2019s motivations, finding proof of Cabello\u2019s involvement would be a big win for the U.S. Jos\u00e9 de C\u00f3rdoba’s article seemed to imply just that in interviewers with protected sources inside U.S. law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018What does the U.S. want?\u2019 said the recruiter, who has been working Venezuelan cases since 2008. \u2018The U.S. wants proof, evidence of relations between politicians, military officers and functionaries with drug traffickers and terrorist groups,\u2019\u201d de C\u00f3rdoba wrote.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! 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