MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan government targets opposition leader Capriles for making “false allegations”

Interior Minister Gonzalez Lopez Twitted that Capriles, will have to explain to court why he described government officials, as “nepotistic and corrupt.”

Barely one week after Venezuela’s President of the National Assembly of Venezuela Diosdado Cabello filed a defamation suit against 22 media executives and editors for publishing reports linking him to an international drug-trafficking, another high-level minister announced they would be filing suit against opposition leader Henrique Capriles for making “false allegations.”

 Interior Minister Gustavo González López wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday that Capriles, the Miranda state governor, will have to explain to court why he described seven other government officials, including González López as “nepotistic and corrupt.”

Capriles allegedly made the allegations after it emerged that the United States government had leveled a series of sanctions against seven high-level Venezuelan politicians for alleged human rights violations and corruption. Since March, the assets of these politicians on US soil have been frozen.

Opposition leader Capriles returned to the offensive urging the government to investigate accusations linking top level politicians with a drug-trafficking ring, previously published in three local media outlets and Spanish newspaper ABC.

US daily The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that US investigators were deep into a probe of Venezuelan lawmakers and had identified Cabello as a “major target” and perhaps even the ringleader of the alleged cartel.

According to the Journal, the US government has been gathering evidence from 12 people who once worked in the Venezuelan military or were close to top government officials, as well as former drug-traffickers.

The current round of legal battles and tit-for-tat accusations were originally sparked by a separate ABC report, published in January, which included an interview with Cabello’s former security chief Leamsy Salazar, who accused his former employer of heading a drug ring with links to Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and the United States.

Salazar defected to the US at the end of last year and since then has been collaborating with the US Drug Enforcement Agency and prosecutors in New York and Miami.

Cabello has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and indicated he will sue those who repeat the allegations.