Chavez blusters over cocaine smuggling charge

NY Times:

Fuming over assertions by American officials that cocaine smuggling through Venezuela has surged in recent years, President Hugo Chávez threatened the American ambassador with expulsion on Sunday, opening a new phase of tension between Venezuela and the United States.

Speaking on his Sunday television program, Mr. Chávez also called the Bush administration’s drug czar, John P. Walters, “stupid,” mocking him by breaking into English and asking, “Are you a donkey?” Going further, Mr. Chávez described the United States as hypocritical, calling it the largest producer of marijuana.

Mr. Chávez was responding to an assertion by Mr. Walters that flows of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela had quadrupled since 2004, reaching about 282 tons in 2007. The American ambassador, Patrick Duddy, later asserted that drug traffickers were taking advantage of tense relations between the United States and Venezuela.

Mr. Chávez’s comments effectively ended what seemed to be the start of a thaw in July, when he chatted with Mr. Duddy at a military parade and invited him to lunch.

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I think he is upset about the smugglers losing one of their planes in West Africa recently in a drug bust. It is also another indication of his unbalanced and tempestuous behavior. This type of bluster is consistent with someone who is a user of cocaine. There have been reports that Chavez likes to chew the leaves. I have seen none suggesting he inhales the refined product.