The president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, said Thursday during the meeting “International Jurists for Peace” that the United States does not carry out a real fight against drug trafficking and that its real interest in the region is to steal Venezuelan oil and justify acts of aggression against Venezuela.

Rodríguez questioned the coherence of U.S. anti-drug policy and recalled that the main centers of drug consumption in the world are in that territory, where drug trafficking is rarely pursued at its roots. “If they really wanted to combat this problem, they should treat drug use as a medical and social issue,” he said. He also cited studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s that indicate that 60 percent to 70 percent of banknotes in circulation in the U.S. had traces of cocaine.

The Venezuelan leader stressed that Venezuela is not a drug-producing country nor does it face a major problem in terms of consumption, in addition, he recalled that the nation has been recognized by international organizations, such as the United Nations, for its effectiveness in the fight against illicit trafficking.

According to Rodríguez, since the departure of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from the country, drug seizures have increased significantly, reaching 70 tons so far in 2027 alone.

Rodríguez denounced that the economic sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuela for more than a decade constitute modern forms of blockade and siege that seriously affect the country’s income and the population’s access to fundamental rights such as health, education and food. “They are wars without bullets, but with victims,” he said.

During his speech, Rodríguez called for maintaining the Caribbean as a zone of peace and warned about the use of the anti-drug pretext to justify acts of aggression against Venezuela. “Let’s not wait decades for documents to be declassified that prove that everything was a lie, as happened with Iraq,” he said.

The event, held in the context of the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace, was attended by prominent authorities and representatives of various sectors, including the presiding magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, Caryslia Carinthia Beatriz Rodríguez Rodríguez; the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil; the first vice president of the National Assembly, Pedro Infante; the second vice president, América Pérez; and other deputies.

Prosecutors from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, members of the Ombudsman’s Office, university deans, law students and representatives of international human rights organizations from nations such as Cuba, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Uganda, Argentina and the Democratic Republic of the Congo also participated

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