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March 27, 2020

U.S. Indicts Venezuelan President, Alleging Plot to "Flood the United States with Cocaine"
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The Trump administration has indicted Venezuelan President Nicolás
Maduro on charges of narcoterrorism and international cocaine
trafficking. Attorney General William Barr laid out the charges
Thursday, claiming Maduro's Socialists United of Venezuela party
partnered with dissident factions of Colombia's FARC rebel movement "to
flood the United States with cocaine" while using the drug trade as a
"weapon against America." The State Department has offered a $15 million
reward for information that could lead to Maduro's arrest.

In a nationwide address Thursday, President Maduro dismissed the charges
as another attempt by Washington to stage a coup d'état. Maduro blasted
President Trump as a "racist cowboy" and fired back at the United
States' handling of the coronavirus crisis.

President Nicolás Maduro: "The United States has become a public health
threat to the public health of Latin America, the Caribbean and the
world. There is no public health system in the United States. There is
no public health system. The entire system is private."



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