Maduro rejects US allegations on drugs

CARACAS — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rejected US allegations of being a drug trafficker and asked US President Donald Trump for dialogue, according to a letter released on Sunday by Caracas, as tensions soar between the two countries.

The letter addressed to Trump is dated Sept 6 and was sent days after the United States deployed warships off the coast of Venezuela and carried out the first of several attacks on Venezuela-based boats. Washington claimed the boats were carrying drugs.

The first attack left 11 people dead with two more strikes following later.

In his missive, Maduro rejected as "absolutely false" US allegations that he leads a drug cartel.

"It is the worst fake news that has been launched against our country in an escalation of an armed conflict that would do catastrophic damage to the whole continent," the letter states.

Maduro urged Trump to "keep the peace with dialogue and understanding in the entire hemisphere".

"President, I hope that together we can defeat this fake news that is filling with noise a relationship that should be historic and peaceful."

Maduro maintained that Venezuela was a "drug-free" country and that only 5 percent of the drugs produced in neighboring Colombia made their way into Venezuelan territory.

"A very relevant fact is that this year we have already neutralized and destroyed more than 70 percent of that small percentage that attempts to cross that extensive border, more than 2,200 kilometers long, that we share with Colombia," he said.

Since the letter was sent, US forces in the Caribbean have attacked two more boats that Washington said were carrying drugs, one off Venezuela and one farther north, off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

The last attack was first announced on Friday by Trump himself, without saying where it happened, and was confirmed on Sunday by the drug enforcement agency of the Dominican Republic and the US embassy there. The attack left three people dead.

Venezuela has denounced the "military threat" against it following the deployment of the US ships.

Agencies Via Xinhua