VENEZUELA REJECTS U.S. CRITICISM ON DRUGS

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's vice president said Thursday that
the United States was the world's biggest consumer of illegal drugs
and had no "moral authority" to criticize Venezuela for failing to
control narcotics.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday in its annual report on drug
trafficking that it no longer considers Venezuela an ally in the war
on drugs, worsening already tense relations between Caracas and Washington.

In a speech to Venezuela's Congress, Vice President Jose Vicente
Rangel responded that: "The country with the highest consumption of
drugs is precisely the United States. Narcotrafficking and
narcotraffickers are in the United States, not in Venezuela."

The U.S. report said that rampant corruption at high levels of law
enforcement and a weak judicial system in Venezuela allowed hundreds
of tons of Colombian cocaine to cross into the country each year.

Rangel claimed Thursday that high-ranking members of President Bush's
administration were involved in drug trafficking and that the U.S.
financial system was "clearly infiltrated" by the drug trade.

He accused U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte of
links to drug trafficking in Central America to obtain funds to buy
arms in Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra scandal -- allegations
denied by U.S. officials in the past.

Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85 at a time
when the U.S.-backed Contra rebels were secretly using that country
as a base to attack the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Rangel did not provide further details.

President Hugo Chavez suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration in August, accusing its members of spying.
The following month, the U.S. government said Venezuela had failed to
effectively fight drug trafficking and removed Venezuela from a list
of cooperating nations, though it did not impose formal sanctions.

Venezuela plans to sign a new anti-drug agreement with Washington
that will strictly limit the local activities of U.S. drug agents,
putting them under control of local authorities and barring joint operations.

U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield tried to defuse the
dispute Thursday.

"The question is not what we have done in the past," he told
reporters. "The question is what we are going to do in the future."