Caracas, Venezuela. – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro presented United Nations statistics on Friday to reject U.S. accusations of drug production and trafficking in the country.

Defense with Regional Data
“Cocaine is produced entirely here, in Colombia, and it has been produced by the allies of the U.S., Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Iván Duque, who were the heirs of Pedro Escobar Gaviria,” Maduro stated while displaying a map with data on drug trafficking routes in the region.

“More than 400,000 hectares of coca leaves. In Venezuela there is not a single one. Not one laboratory,” the president affirmed, attributing this to the efforts of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, which he said prevent any attempt to establish such facilities.

Rejecting U.S. Allegations
“Venezuela is not a relevant country in terms of drug trafficking. It is a lie as crude and false as the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,” Maduro declared. Addressing the American people, he added: “Do not let yourselves be sold another lie to justify another fratricidal war, this time in South America.”

Maduro further alleged that some officials from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are attempting to promote “regime change” in Venezuela. He described it as “a mistake” to build what he called a completely fabricated case around drug trafficking to justify aggression against the entire nation.

“It is an attempt to cover up with a dirty, Hollywood-style script that divides the world between good and bad—where the bad are always the Latinos and the good are always the gringos,” Maduro said.

Figures from the UN Report
According to the report cited by the Venezuelan president, 87% of drugs leaving Colombia are moved via the Pacific. Meanwhile, 8% of Colombian illegal products are shipped through routes in the Caribbean and Colombia’s Guajira region. Only 5% of Colombian drugs, the report indicated, attempt to transit through Venezuelan territory.