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DRUGS LINKED TO ARMED FORCES

Drug Trafficking In Venezuela Has Become A Big Problem And May Be Corrupting The Highest Levels Of Its Armed Forces

BEJUMA, Venezuela - In this deceptively tranquil farming village, people still talk about the ''Bejuma massacre'' in a whisper, partly because one man who spoke out is in a grave, partly because the killers were allegedly policemen.

But the source of the fear can be summed up in a single word: drug trafficking, on the kind of massive level and involving corrupt government officials that has long been a profound problem in neighboring Colombia.

Drug seizures in Venezuela doubled in the past four years.  There are mounting allegations of drug-fueled corruption at the highest levels of the security forces, accompanied by what appears to be official indifference.  Just last month, a suspected Colombian trafficker wanted in the United States escaped from a Venezuelan police lockup after allegedly bribing his guards.

The rising drug trafficking has become yet another sore point in relations between the Bush administration and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fiery populist who has repeatedly accused the U.S.  government of trying to topple him.

''There are a few people who see [drugs] as a global problem, but those people are few and far between,'' said one Western counter-drug official who asked for anonymity because he did not have official permission to speak publicly on the topic.

Venezuela has long been a transit country for illegal Colombian drugs.  But record seizures in 2004 that reached 32 tons of cocaine and 12 tons of heroin and marijuana put authorities on the alert.

''The organizations have grown more sophisticated,'' Mildred Camero, former head of CONACUID, the drug-fighting arm of the Venezuelan government, told a news conference earlier this year.

CARTEL ALLEGATIONS

Still, CONACUID and other law enforcement agencies have arrested few major traffickers and say they know of no Venezuelan cartels -- information that numerous police and counter-drug officials in Colombia contradict.

Venezuelan authorities indeed at times blame their neighbors for the scourge.  ''We have problems because we have countries that produce [drugs] along our border and there are weaknesses along that border because it's nearly 1,300 miles long,'' Camero told the news conference.

Colombia's drugs flow to other parts of the world on land and air routes through areas such as the Venezuelan state of Carabobo, where Bejuma is located, on the Caribbean Coast.  Police describe Carabobo as a key link in the chain that sends tons of cocaine, marijuana and growing amounts of heroin to the United States and Europe.

And with the growing volume has come more drug-related violence and corruption at increasingly higher levels.

''There's been a huge transformation,'' said a foreign diplomat in Caracas who asked that he not be identified because of the sensitivity of his job.  ``The corruption is reaching levels we've just never seen before.''

THE GONZALEZ CASE

The problem was nowhere more visible than in the case of suspected trafficker Eudo Gonzalez, who according to neighbors often threw parties for police and allowed them to use a firing range on his Bejuma ranch.

But the heavily armed police and intelligence officers who showed up at his gate on Feb.  11, 2004, were not looking to party.  By the time they were done, Gonzalez and at least five of his employees were dead - -- killed in a ''shootout'' that left not a scratch on any of the cops.

Gonzalez and his brother Hermagoras were well known to counter-drug officials.  A court in Virginia indicted Eudo on heroin charges in the mid-1990s.  And officials of two foreign lawenforcement agencies told The Herald he was involved in drugs, gun-running and money-laundering, and could be Venezuela's top trafficker.

But the Gonzalez brothers allegedly enjoyed the friendship of law enforcement officials far beyond the parties at Eudo's ranch.

When the police killed Eudo, he was carrying a National Guard identification card signed by the Guard's former head of intelligence, Gen.  Alexis Maneiro, according to reports published by Mauro Marcano, a newspaper columnist and local radio program host in the small town of Maturin.  Marcano also served as a municipal councilman in Maturin, a town in the region east of Bejuma where Maneiro once headed the National Guard detachment.

JOURNALIST KILLED

Marcano, 55, who was shot and killed by a gunman in September as he left his apartment, had long alleged the existence of a drug-smuggling group dubbed the Cartel of the Suns after the insignias of rank worn by Venezuelan generals -- as U.S.  generals wear stars.

One foreign diplomat in Caracas familiar with anti-drug operations described the cartel as ``a large group of generals in the army and the National Guard, especially .  .  .  They control a certain number of shipments out of Colombia, and they get a cut of those shipments.''

The Western counter-drug official who asked for anonymity estimated that the group might be responsible for three-to-five tons of cocaine a month and 20-30 kilograms of heroin.

Venezuelan government officials have said little on the topic.

After The Herald made several attempts to interview Gen.  Frank Morgado, head of the National Guard's anti-narcotics command, about the Maneiro case, Morgado responded via fax that his unit ''has no information relating to that matter.'' He suggested consulting ``the relevant authorities.''

Maneiro did not return repeated Herald phone calls to his office.

But the National Guard's own commitment to the fight against drugs has come under question.

EXITING THE TASK FORCE

Earlier this year, Guardsmen unexpectedly seized U.S.-donated equipment and vehicles from a mixed police-and-judicial investigative unit and withdrew from the task force, which works closely with U.S.  officials.  After several weeks of haggling, the Guard returned the equipment but has not rejoined the task force.

And last month, the government abruptly removed Camero -- one of the key U.S.  allies in the government, according to officials at the American embassy here -- from her post at CONACUID.  Also ousted were two senior officials in the prosecutor's office with oversight of drug cases.

''There have been some recent bumps in the road,'' U.S.  Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield acknowledged to The Herald last month.

Gen.  Maneiro's career has not prospered since the Marcano killing.  Shortly afterward, he was removed from his post as commander of the Guard's 7th Region, which includes Maturin, and assigned to run the National Guard academy in Caracas.

But investigators have not questioned him or any other senior military and police figures previously fingered by Marcano, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based independent group that tracks abuses against journalists.

''The investigation,'' said one of its recent reports, ``has come to a complete halt.''