Yeah, you and what army

Venezuela has demanded that the US extradite a former supreme court judge who has accused Caracas of links to drug-traffickers, claiming that his testimony to US authorities was part of a smear campaign against President Hugo Chávez.

The fugitive judge, Eladio Aponte Aponte, was removed from office in March over charges that he provided fake documents to alleged drug trafficker Walid Makled. Mr Aponte is co-operating with US authorities after flying to Miami in a aeroplane chartered by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Interpol last week issued a “red alert” for Mr Aponte’s arrest over his connection with Mr Makled.

Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s foreign minister, seized on this fact on Monday, warning that if the US did not return Mr Aponte, the Americans would become “direct accomplices of these drug-trafficking mafias”.

Mr Maduro said that Venezuela has sent more than 22 drug smugglers to the US, and that it “only has one option” – to reciprocate and hand over Mr Aponte. He accused the DEA of being a “protector of criminals” and attempting “to weaken or destroy the changes taking place in Venezuela and other revolutionary processes in Latin America”.

Mr Aponte made sweeping criticisms of the Venezuelan government in an interview with a Miami-based television station, Soitv, accusing it of links to drug traffickers and Colombian guerrillas, as well as meddling in the justice system and keeping political prisoners.

He singled out one of Mr Chávez’s closest allies, Diosdado Cabello, the president of Venezuela’s congress and a possible successor to Mr Chávez if his battle with cancer forces him to step down.

Mr Chávez returned from Cuba on Friday, announcing a “successful” conclusion to his sixth round of radiotherapy in Havana where he has spent over 100 days so far this year since his cancer returned in February. He promised to return soon to the “front line of the battle” ahead of presidential elections in October.

Officials claimed that Mr Aponte’s accusations were part of a campaign to undermine the government ahead of the elections, along with more recent statements by Luis Velásquez Alvaray, another fugitive judge.

Last week Soitv, which is financed by opponents to Mr Chávez, released an interview with Mr Alvaray, a former supreme court judge who has been in exile since 2006, in which he claimed that a “cartel war” was under way within the Venezuelan army. He said that Mr Chávez must know that “among his favourite generals there are narcotraffickers”, accusing a high-ranking military official of being behind a recent spate of contract killings of generals allegedly involved in drug trafficking.

Meanwhile Mr Makled, who Washington designated a kingpin in 2008 and is on trial in Venezuela after Colombia last year chose to extradite him there rather than the US, on Tuesday claimed that he lent government ministers and officials his private aeroplane. He also said Mr Aponte was an associate whom he had paid millions of dollars.