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Former Venezuelan VP Will Not 'Surrender' to US Criticism

Martin Arostegui

   MADRID - Former Venezuelan Vice President Tarek El Aissami last week
   struck out at Washington after the Trump administration named him,
   along with Venezuelan businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello, to its Most
   Wanted List for international narcotics trafficking and money
   laundering.

   El Aissami was accused of managing a vast narco-trafficking network
   involving the Venezuelan military, and other members of his family who
   also hold key government positions. He also has been accused by former
   Venezuelan spy chiefs who defected recently to have ties with the
   Iranian-backed movement Hezbollah.

   The move followed the 2017 designation of El Aissami, now minister of
   industry and national production, as a "specially designated narcotics
   trafficker" by the U.S. Treasury Department.

   "I will not surrender to this new attack by U.S. imperialism," he said
   on Venezuela's state television, "I ask for more power for popular
   mobilization and national civic movement with our national forces," he
   added.

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