Leaking of GAO Report Calls into Question Its Credibility, Among Other Things

Last week the final draft of the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) report on Venezuela-US drug cooperation, requested by Republican Senator Richard Luger, was leaked to the press. It appeared that some right wing political interests hoped to frame the debate before the very country about which the report had been written was able to review it. While the GAO was made aware of the situation, it still did not allow the government of Venezuela to review its findings until the set release date, which was this Monday.

As was expected, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and many others highlighted the report in articles throughout the week.  What was unexcepted was that none of them actually questioned the credibility of the findings, based almost exclusively on previously released and highly politicized reports issued under the Bush administration. By basing a new report on old findings and using information and accounts provided exclusively by US and Colombian government officials, the GAO has replicated the Bush policy of using technical reports as political weapons, further politicizing the issue of cooperation between the two nations.  Read the VIO fact sheet about the report here.   

In response, Venezuela's Foreign Ministry issued a statement categorically rejecting the report, which claims that government corruption and support for narco-traffickers exists at the ministerial level, and reiterated Venezuela's advances in the fight against drugs; interdiction has actually increased since the DEA was required to leave the country in 2005. This report "is a tool for political blackmail that lacks scientific objectivity and serious methodology, with the goal of promoting the interventionist pretension of Washington in the rest of the world.  The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reaffirms that the normalization of political relations with the government of the United States is subject to the termination of this intolerable practice."  Read the full statement:

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs - Statement The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding Venezuelan cooperation in anti-drug matters, published on Monday, July 20, 2009. This, along with other reports published regularly by US government agencies, is a tool for political blackmail that lacks scientific objectivity and serious methodology, with the goal of promoting the interventionist pretension of Washington in the rest of the world. The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reaffirms that the normalization of political relations with the government of the United States is subject to the termination of this intolerable practice. The Bolivarian Government of Venezuela exhibits extraordinary results in terms of drug seizures, consistently recognized by the reports of the United Nations since 2006 to the present, precisely the time period that has passed since the eradication of the presence of the DEA in Venezuela. The implementation of the National Drug Plan 2009 - 2013 and the creation of the National Anti-Drug Fund have generated the material and conceptual basis for the nationalization of the unrelenting fight against drug trafficking in a country like Venezuela, located between Colombia and the United States, the principle producer and consumer, respectively, on the Continent. The GAO would make better use of U.S. taxpayer money, by concentrating its efforts on dismantling the networks of corruption that make its own country a paradise for drug dealers and gangs that are enriched by the trade in death, amidst the ineptitude and indifference of its own authorities. Caracas, July 21, 2009

In an emailed statement, Senator Lugar said that the findings of the report reflect "corruption in that country's government" and "require at a minimum a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Venezuela."

MINCI