Venezuelan first lady’s nephews arrested in Haiti on US drug smuggling charges

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady are facing arraignment in New York after being arrested in Haiti on charges of conspiring to smuggle 800 kilograms of cocaine into the US&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The arrests of Efrain Campos and Francisco Flores are likely to exacerbate already tense relations between the US and Venezuela&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They will also cast a hard look at US accusations of drug trafficking at the highest levels of President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist administration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case comes just three weeks before key elections that opinion polls have suggested could hand the ruling party its worst defeat in 16 years as Venezuela’s struggles with triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages of basic goods&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Michael Shifter&comma; president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think tank&comma; said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The timing is hardly ideal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The arrests could give Maduro the excuse he was hoping for to declare a state of emergency and postpone the elections&period; He will blame the arrests on US imperialism and see them as an attempt to undermine his government&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Maduro seemed to refer to the case in a Twitter post late on Wednesday night&comma; in which he condemned attempts at imperialist meddling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He wrote&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The homeland will continue its course&period; Neither attacks nor imperialist ambushes can harm the Liberator’s people&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Campos and Mr Flores were arrested on Tuesday&comma; flown to the United States and scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday in a federal court in New York&comma; a US law enforcement official said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The men were arrested in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince after arriving from Venezuela aboard a private plane&comma; said Michael Vigil&comma; a former head of international operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Both men were carrying diplomatic passports even though they do not have diplomatic immunity&comma; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Vigil also said Mr Campos had claimed to law enforcement that he is the son of First Lady Cilia Flores and stepson of Mr Maduro&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Campos is reported to be the son of a deceased sister of Ms Flores and was partly raised by the first lady and Mr Maduro&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Flores&comma; whom Mr Maduro calls the First Combatant&comma; is one of the most influential members of Venezuela’s revolutionary government and a constant presence alongside her husband whenever he appears in public&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The two travelled to Saudi Arabia for a summit this week and she was expected to be with the president for a speech to the UN Human Rights Council at a meeting in Geneva called at Venezuela’s request on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A former president of the National Assembly who is now running for congress&comma; Ms Flores became romantically involved with Mr Maduro in the 1990s while serving as lawyer for the then-jailed Hugo Chavez&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Maduro was one of many leftist activists drawn to Mr Chavez following his arrest for a failed 1992 coup attempt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Flores and Mr Maduro formally wed in 2013 shortly after Mr Maduro was elected president following Mr Chavez’s death&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>American prosecutors have been steadily stepping up pressure on high-ranking members of Venezuela’s military&comma; police and government officials for their alleged role in making the country an important transit zone for narcotics heading to the US and Europe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The US government says more than 200 tonnes of cocaine flows through Venezuela a year&comma; about a third of Colombia’s estimated production&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Several Venezuelan officials&comma; including a former defence minister and head of military intelligence&comma; have been indicted or sanctioned in the US&comma; and many more are under investigation&comma; but no drug probes had previously touched Mr Maduro’s inner circle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed121b1ed61">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; 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