VENEZUELA GOVERNMENT UNHELPFUL IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS, U.S. SAYS

The Declaration Is Likely To Further Sour Relations Between The Countries.
Chavez Government Says America Has No Right To Label Others As Pariahs.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration declared Thursday that Venezuela had
failed to cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking, a move likely to
worsen already strained relations between the countries.

The administration said the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
had reduced anti-drug cooperation with the United States, replaced
qualified drug officials with unqualified political loyalists and, through
neglect, allowed more narcotics to flow through its borders to the United
States and Europe.

Venezuela "has been a disappointment," John P. Walters, director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy, told reporters, adding that Chavez
"acts as if he no longer wants a productive relationship with the United
States."

The administration's move, part of a congressionally required report, came
amid continuing friction between Washington and Chavez, a populist with
strong ties to Cuba who has expressed strong anti-U.S. sentiment.
Washington has charged that Chavez is a regional troublemaker who is
undermining democratic institutions in Venezuela and threatening to
destabilize neighboring countries through support for radical leftist groups.

Venezuelan officials, anticipating the move in recent weeks, have
complained publicly that the United States has no right to label others as
pariahs. An official at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington declined to
comment on Thursday's declaration.

Although it does not involve financial penalties, branding Venezuela
uncooperative in the fight against drugs is a symbolic slap that is certain
to anger the Chavez government.

The U.S. is required to cut off aid to countries that do not cooperate in
the anti-drug effort. In this case, the White House waived the requirement
so it could continue to fund a series of small programs aimed at developing
political parties and other democratic institutions in Venezuela.

That move also may annoy Chavez: The administration hopes to continue to
fund groups that may include some of the Venezuelan president's political
opponents, analysts said.

The move "reflects a bilateral relationship that has steadily
deteriorated," said Peter DeShazo, who was the State Department's
second-ranking diplomat for Latin America until last year and is now
director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington.

A significant amount of Colombian cocaine and heroin passes through lightly
protected borders into Venezuela en route to the United States, officials
say. In past years, Venezuela has cooperated with U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration efforts to monitor and impede the flow of drugs from
laboratories in the Colombian jungle. Those efforts have suffered as
relations between Washington and Caracas have grown increasingly strained.

In July, Venezuela complained that DEA agents were spying on the
government, and suspended some cooperative undercover operations, including
so-called controlled deliveries, or sting operations, involving drug
shipments originating in or passing through the country. The U.S. has since
suspended visas of two Venezuelan national guard officers suspected of
being involved in drug trafficking.

Venezuelan officials have recently said they would like to build a new
relationship. U.S. law enforcement agents who asked not to be named
expressed dissatisfaction in interviews this week over a new U.S.-Venezuela
"working agreement." It gives U.S. agents less latitude in carrying out
anti-drug operations compared with British and Russian agents fighting
organized crime there.

In a news conference with Walters, Nancy J. Powell, the acting assistant
secretary of State for narcotics and law enforcement, said Thursday's
declaration resulted from the Venezuelan government's refusal to cooperate
in anti-drug efforts and data-sharing programs and from a "negative
publicity campaign" against the DEA.

The U.S. process that determines whether a country is deemed to be
cooperating in the war on drugs has long been controversial among Latin
American officials who question whether the nation that is responsible for
the lion's share of demand should be censuring others.

Some analysts wondered whether the U.S. "name and shame" approach would
bring more cooperation or further complicate a troubled relationship.

"Whatever substance there is to Venezuelan authorities' cooperating or not
will be different to extract from the now-spiraling political conflict
between the U.S. and Venezuela," said John Walsh, a senior associate at the
Washington Office on Latin America. "The drug war is now one more
politicized issue in U.S.- Venezuela relations."

Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at Inter-American Dialogue,
a Washington think tank, said the relationship between the countries had
been repeatedly buffeted by events, including a comment last month by
religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that the U.S. should assassinate Chavez.

"Given the whole political climate it's going to be like getting Humpty
Dumpty together again when it comes to U.S.-Venezuelan cooperation,"
Erikson said.

The annual drug report named one other country, Myanmar, as failing to
cooperate on anti-drug work. The nation has also been named in previous years.

------- Richter reported from Washington and Kraul from Coral Gables, Fla.
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