Venezuela: Vice-president rubbishes US drugs claims
El Aissami counterattacks with newspaper ad
VENEZUELAN Vice-President Tareck El Aissami hit back at US sanctions imposed on him with a full-page advert published in the New York Times on Wednesday.
The US Treasury slapped the sanctions on him over allegations that he was involved in drug smuggling and had aided Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah — claims gleaned from a series of sensationalist reports by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
A group of 34 US Congress members from both parties wrote to President Donald Trump two weeks ago urging action based on those reports — a letter that was leaked to AP.
More from this author
Similar stories

FIONA SIM sees the Venezuelan anti-fascist and anti-imperialist initiatives as offering hope to the rest of the world

The new ‘Bolivar’ Act expands the brutal sanctions programme as the Trump team signals a return to aggressive regime change and foreign mercenaries plot insurrection and assassination, writes TIM YOUNG