Country complains to US for VP drug sanctions

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February 15, 2017 8:20 PM

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez handed over official protest notes during a meeting with Lee McClenny, charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Caracas.

The United States Treasury Department accused Tareck El Aissami (pictured) and an ally, businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello, of being major cocaine traffickers

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez handed over official protest notes during a meeting with Lee McClenny, charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Caracas.

"The protest notes that were handed over reject the actions" of the US Treasury Department in slapping sanctions on Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami, the ministry said on Twitter.

The Treasury Department on Monday accused El Aissami and an ally, businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello, of being major cocaine traffickers.

It froze their US assets and banned US nationals from doing business with them.

Hardline former interior minister El Aissami, 42, is next in line to President Nicolas Maduro and would take over if the opposition succeeded in its bid to oust the leader in a vote.

The ministry said Rodriguez demanded "due respect" for El Aissami under the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

Maduro on Tuesday demanded the United States apologize for the sanctions and vowed to respond "forcefully."

The government credits El Aissami with cracking down on drug trafficking while serving as interior minister.

But the US Treasury says he actually oversaw shipments of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico and the United States.

The Venezuelan armed forces also threw their weight behind El Aissami on Wednesday.

In a statement, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez called the sanctions "a new act of interference by the United States" aimed at destabilizing Venezuela.

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