Venezuela Closes Ranks Around Sanctioned Vice President, Tareck El Aissami<br />Vice President Tareck El Aissami was blacklisted on Monday by the Treasury Department, which said<br />that Mr. El Aissami and an associate had moved drugs within Venezuela and had helped protect international kingpins.<br />The president also offered a spirited defense of Mr. El Aissami, saying<br />that in previous posts in the government, including at the Interior Ministry, he had led campaigns against drug trafficking in Venezuela.<br />nezuela," the office said. that facilitated shipments of narcotics from Venezuela, to include control over planes<br />that leave from a Venezuelan air base, as well as control of drug routes through the ports in Ve<br />14, 2017<br />LIMA, Peru — President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Tuesday defended his second-in-command, who has been sanctioned by the United States over allegations<br />that he is a narcotics trafficker, and said he would demand a public apology from the American government.<br />The sanctions, announced on Monday by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, described Mr. El Aissami as a "drug trafficker"<br />and a "kingpin" who had used his past positions of power, which also included a state governorship, to move large quantities of narcotics.<br />More than 100 kingpins have been caught in Venezuela during Mr. El Aissami’s tenure<br />in the government, the president said, with many extradited to the United States.
