The criminalization of major elements of the Venezuelan government, to include National Guard units, could provoke major destabilization in the oil-rich South American country. In the past year, US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents have witnessed an escalation of narcotics operations undertaken with the complicity of elements from the Venezuelan National Guard. Narcotic transshipment operations via Caracas’s Maiquetia international airport have increased dramatically, with estimates of 200 tons of Colombian cocaine per year passing through the airport.
US Relations with the Venezuelan Government
During this same timeframe, US and Venezuelan relations have deteriorated, limiting any incentive the Venezuelan government may have had in curtailing narcotic transportation operations. Additionally, in 2005, President Hugo Chavez suspended cooperation with the DEA in Venezuela, accusing agents of spying on the Venezuelan government. These setbacks have limited the ability of the DEA and its Venezuelan counterparts to curtail and or diminish the use of the Maiquetia airport as a transshipment point of Colombian narcotics to the US. Consequently, narco-operations have proliferated in Venezuela.
Venezuelan Cartel Operations
Venezuela’s close proximity to Colombia makes the country a far more attractive transshipment point for Colombian narcotics to the US than via Mexico . The logistical and security dilemmas associated with the shipment of narcotics via water or land routes to the US-Mexico border ensures that a certain percentage of narcotics shipments fail to generate street revenue. Shipping narcotics through a Venezuelan transporter can reduce this percentage of confiscated and/or lost narcotics, increasing assured delivery.
The growth of Venezuelan drug cartels specializing in transshipment operations will result in rival cartels vying for control of lucrative smuggling routes. Rivalry and competition for possession of shipment routes causes destabilization and rampant violence, as has been demonstrated in northern Mexico .
Implications for US Oil Security
The massive influx of illegal narcotics operations into Venezuela is disconcerting to the US government due to the destabilizing nature of drug cartels. Although the Venezuelan and US governments lack a congenial relationship, both states recognize the symbiotic economic relationship that exists. Any threat to the Venezuelan oil supply from Colombian or Venezuelan drug cartels could result in a precipitous backlash by the Chavez government, debilitating cartel operations. However, the continued, unhindered growth of cartel operations and the involvement of elements of the Venezuelan National Guard in these cartels will increase the groups’ abilities to survive a sustained government and military campaign.
A comprehensive military and government campaign must be undertaken immediately to limit the development of cartels in Venezuela. The potential negative repercussions to the Venezuelan populace and economy, and the ripple effect beyond Venezuela, are great and must be ameliorated.