Caracas, July 12 (RHC)-- Venezuelan Interior Minister Néstor Reverol on Saturday rejected the accusations made by U.S. government officials during the election campaign of President Donald Trump at an event in Florida, where he accused independent countries, especially Venezuela, of promoting drug trafficking.

The U.S. government's strategy is part of the systematic attack promoted by the White House to disqualify the country and pass it off as a "narco-state" with the aim of encouraging a military invasion.

Venezuela's anti-drug policies are aimed at neutralizing the transit of illegal substances produced in Colombia, a neighboring country that concentrates 70% of the world's cocaine production, and whose main destination is the United States, he said.

The U.S. is ranked as the world's largest consumer of psychotropic and narcotic substances, according to the United Nations' report on the subject, which highlights that in the country administered by Donald Trump, 70,237 deaths occurred in 2019 from overdoses.

Reverol assured that Venezuela will maintain a frontal fight against drug trafficking in three solid areas (social prevention and international cooperation) for which he accused the Trump administration of being cynical.

He recalled that the UN's own report on drugs ranks the U.S. as the fourth largest nation in terms of seizures and dismantling of drug laboratories.  The Venezuelan interior minister said that this is not a new strategy, but that in 2007, they used it against Commander Hugo Chávez. 

"We have shown that anti-drug policies have been positive, even more so when Commander Chávez expelled the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and suspended the 14 agreements with the United States," he said.

He said that prior to that sovereign decision, the DEA in Venezuela was engaged in negotiations with drug traffickers, controlled deliveries and conspired to carry out a coup d'état against Commander Chávez.