Argument that Maduro is a narco-terrorist ‘flimsy’, says justice professorpublished at 07:39 GMT
Nicolás Maduro has been charged with “Narco-Terrorism
Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and
Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive
Devices against the United States”.
President Trump has described the charges brought against Maduro as responding to his “campaign of deadly
narco-terrorism” against the US and its citizens.
But this notion is built on “very flimsy ground,”
says Julia Buxton, professor of justice studies at Liverpool John Moores
University.
She tells BBC Breakfast that Venezuela is “not a major
exporter of cocaine”.
“The bulk of cocaine going into the US comes through
the pacific coast, up through Mexico and Columbia.
“There’s no fentanyl coming out of Venezuela. What the
trump administration has had to do is kind of invent this notion of Maduro as a
narco-terrorist in order to carry out policies of regime change.”
She says that Trump would like to see American oil companies
move into Venezuela, but this isn’t a particularly attractive prospect for
those companies.
“There’s a glut of oil on global markets, and to try
and turn around Venezuela’s oil industry is going to take billions and billions
of dollars in investment,” she adds.
