Venezuela detains ruling party mayor over drug trafficking

CARACAS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities have detained a mayor belonging to the ruling Socialist party and two elected deputies as part of an operation against drug trafficking, the government said, without saying if any drugs were seized.
The interior ministry and anti-drugs authority apprehended Keyrineth Fernandez, a ruling PSUV party mayor for a municipality in Venezuela's Zulia state along Venezuela's border with Colombia. Fernandez was elected mayor during local and regional elections last November.
One of the deputies belongs to PSUV and the other belongs to the Primero Venezuela party. Authorities captured three other people in the operation including a Colombian national, the interior ministry and anti-drug agency said in a statement late on Friday
"Investigations are continuing and new arrests have not been ruled out," the statement said.
Socialist party vice president Diosdado Cabello said those within the ranks of the PSUV who commit crimes will be brought to justice.
"In the PSUV there is no compromising with criminals," Cabello said in a Twitter post.
Venezuela, enmeshed in a long-running political and economic crisis, has turned into a launch pad for trafficking drugs toward Europe, Africa and the United States, according to security analysts. The U.S. government has accused Venezuela's government of not doing enough to counter drug trafficking.
For its part, Venezuela's government has said detentions of drug traffickers in the country and seizures of narcotics have multiplied since it expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2005.
In another incident, Carlos Vidal, a ruling-party mayor for a municipality in Venezuela's Anzoategui state, was detained for smuggling gasoline and selling it illegally, Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said. Fuel smuggling persists, opens new tab in some areas of the country, which the government has vowed to fight.

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Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Mayela Armas Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Diane Craft and Will Dunham

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Deisy reports on oil and energy and general news from Venezuela's capital, Caracas. She is also interested in reporting on politics and the environment. Deisy has been working with Reuters in Caracas since 2001, where she started writing on violent anti-government protests, the death of Venezuela’s former President Hugo Chávez, and problems at state oil company PDVSA, among other topics. She loves animals like dogs and cats!

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Since 2018 Mayela has reported for Reuters on Venezuela’s economy and general news from capital Caracas. She is particularly interested in covering the effects of Venezuela’s economic crisis and high inflation, especially concerning the effects this has on the day-to-day lives of people and families. She also writes about how the country’s finances are managed, as well as Venezuela’s main industries. Before she joined Reuters Mayela worked at local media outlets.