Nephews of Venezuela’s first lady facing cocaine charges in US

Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, the first lady’s adopted son and nephew, respectively, were taken into custody in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which accused them of trying to traffic 800 kilograms of cocaine, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Vigil said negotiations between the two arrested men and an undercover agent focused on getting a plane and pilot to fly the drugs to Honduras, a popular smuggling destination for cartels operating in Venezuela, for their eventual transport to the US.

Both are nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, according to two sources linked to the Flores family.

More than 150 lawmakers from Latin America and the United States have signed a letter addressed to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Flores, who Maduro calls the “First Combatant,” is one of the most influential members of Venezuela’s revolutionary government and a constant presence alongside her husband whenever he appears in public.

“The United States is misusing human rights as a political weapon …”

She has since devoted herself to being first lady, though she is now seeking to return to the National Assembly in Venezuela’s December 6 legislative elections.

In a 40-minute presentation, Maduro told the 47-member council that Kelly has said “Venezuela was going to implode politically, socially, and he issued a series of statements that clearly come from a general of the US army…”

“Venezuela uses its army, its foreign ministry, and its banking sector as accessories to a profitable drug business”.

“There are new attacks against Venezuela, despite a year 2015 that has been hard, with economic warfare because the price of our oil export plummeted by 60 percent, we will be showing record reductions in abject poverty”, he told the forum.

The request to the Hague-based court, involving eight officials including Maduro, was made in the name of a group of alleged victims of the current regime, including Vecchio.

The people of the global South must be respected in their own identities, President Maduro, declared, citing Venezuela’s new Constitution which set forth concept of putting people at the centre of efforts and outlines social justice, environmental protection and labour rights, among others.

The State Department has called Venezuela a “preferred” route for drug traffickers sending their shipments to the USA and Western Europe.

Drug trafficking has become a major US concern regarding the potential of Venezuela’s socialist government of doing harm in the region and potentially threatening the wellbeing of American citizens.