Page 11 - ATD14NOV2015

WORLD NEWS A11
Venezuela drug scandal reverberates as elections kick off
HANNAH DREIER
Associated press
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)
— It’s the story of the year
or no story at all, depend-
ing on where one falls on
Venezuela’s hyper-polar-
ized political spectrum.
Venezuelan officials kept si-
lent Friday on the arrest this
week of two nephews of
first lady Cilia Flores on U.S. ela.” U.S prosecutors have
drug trafficking charges.
The South American coun-
try’s opposition leaders,
meanwhile, made the
news the focus of their ral-
lies to mark the launch of
the campaign season for
crucial Dec. 6 congressio-
nal elections.
The two young men were
arrested in Haiti on Tuesday
on charges of conspiring to
smuggle cocaine into the
United States. They are be-
ing held in New York with-
out bail.
The opposition hammered
on the scandal on Friday
during nationwide events
celebrating the official
start of the fight for control
of congress — a battle that
polls indicate the govern-
ment may lose badly. Op-
position leaders said the ar-
Wild gun battle kills 4 bystanders
in Mexico border city of Reynosa
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A
wild running gun battle
between Mexican soldiers
and gunmen in the border
city of Reynosa resulted in
the deaths of four bystand-
ers after a military vehicle
took a spray of gunfire and
crashed into a taco stand.
The dead were apparent-
ly customers at the taco
stand in Reynosa, across
the border from McAl-
len, Texas. They included
a 20-year-old mother and
her 4-month-old baby.
Four other bystanders were
wounded, as were an un-
specified number of army
personnel.
The government of the
Saturday 14 November 2015

rests had shocked the na- Opposition members cheer during a campaign rally for congressional candidates, in Caracas,
tion and showed the need Venezuela, Friday, Nov. 13, 2015. The process for the Dec. 6 legislative elections enters the final
for change after 16 years stretch with the formal start of the campaign in the midst of a complex economic crisis, and the
of socialist rule. recent scandal involving two nephews of first lady Cilia Flores on U.S. drug trafficking charges.
The most hard line party in
the opposition coalition, (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Popular Will, referred to the
arrests in its slogan for the
campaign launch: “Today
we start the shift from narco
state to a better Venezu-
investigated several high-
level Venezuelan officials
for drug and corruption
charges, but this week’s
arrests marks the first time
President Nicolas Madu-
ro’s inner circle has been
directly implicated. Even
many government critics
were surprised because
they tend to see Maduro,
the hand-picked succes-
sor to late President Hugo
Chavez, as incompetent
but not especially corrupt.
Neither Maduro nor any
other governing official has
commented on the arrests,
and national media has
largely blacked out the
news. One of the country’s
largest daily newspapers
reported on the drug bust,
but left out any connection
to the first family. q
northern state of Tamauli-
pas said Thursday in a press
statement that it regretted
the deaths, and blamed
the gunmen for the attack.
The army patrol was pursu-
ing a five-vehicle convoy
of armed suspects late
Wednesday when a sport
utility vehicle unexpectedly
joined the confrontation.
Occupants of the SUV
shot out the windshield of
a military patrol truck and
crashed into it. The force
of the impact and the loss
of visibility from the shot-
out windshield led the mili-
tary vehicle to crash into
the stand and two nearby
vehicles.q