US indicts Venezuela’s president on narco-terrorism charges

The U.S. government on Thursday indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of “narco-terrorism,” the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.

According to the sources of Reuters, The State Department has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Maduro, whose country has been convulsed by years of a deep economic crisis and political upheaval.

The department accused them on Thursday of conspiring with Colombian rebels “to flood the United States with cocaine”.

“We estimate that somewhere between 200 and 250 metric tonnes of cocaine are shipped out of Venezuela by these routes. Those 250 metric tonnes equates to 30 million lethal doses,” it said.

Attorney General William Barr, announcing the charges, accused Mr Maduro and his associates of conspiring with a dissident faction of the Colombian guerrilla group FARC “to flood the United States with cocaine”.

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Pompeo said in a statement, “While holding key positions in the Maduro regime, these individuals violated the public trust by facilitating shipments of narcotics from Venezuela, including control over planes that leave from a Venezuelan airbase, as well as control of drug routes through the ports in Venezuela.”