Maduro’s nephews extradited to USA on cocaine charges

Santa Elena, November 12th, 2015 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Two young men, nephews of Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores, were arrested this weekend in Haiti by United States authorities and will allegedly face charges of drug trafficking in a NY federal court.

Invited to address a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Maduro first sat and listened as United Nations human rights commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in a recorded video message urged Venezuela – recently re-elected to a new term on the HRC – to do more to advance human rights at home and overseas.

The guys, named Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, as stated by the indictment, were arrested in Haiti.

According to United States prosecutors the defendants participated in several meetings during October to coordinate a shipment of drugs with an operation that started in Honduras and whose final destination was the US. They’re expected to be arraigned before a federal judge in NY on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Vecchio said the request to the ICC was a way to focus “the attention at an global level on the atmosphere that Nicolas Maduro has created, practically calling for violence in case we win”.

The removal of the two men comes only three weeks in front of key Venezuelan authoritative races. Maduro was one of many leftist activists drawn to the charismatic junior army officer following his arrest for a failed 1992 coup attempt.

The pair were carrying diplomatic passports, though neither is actually a diplomat entitled to immunity. Even many government critics were surprised because they tend to see Maduro, the hand-picked successor to late President Hugo Chavez, as incompetent but not especially corrupt.

Known for her toughness, Flores won election to Venezuela’s National Assembly in 2000 and became its speaker in 2006, succeeding Maduro, who had been named foreign minister.

Pastora Medina, who was a legislator when Flores was president of Congress, said she was not surprised to hear the first lady’s family had drawn her into controversy.

“Venezuela is one of the preferred trafficking routes for illegal drugs from South America to the Caribbean region, Central America, the United States, Western Africa, and Europe, due to its porous western border with Colombia, weak judicial system, sporadic worldwide counternarcotics cooperation, and permissive and corrupt environment”, the report says.

President Nicolas Maduro’s popularity is plummeting and his ruling socialists risk losing the December 6 legislative elections.