Walid Makled was nobody a decade ago but he is somebody of note today. Makled has become a billionaire drug kingpin who is alleged to know lots about the FARC, money-laundering, Iran, terrorism, the nuclear weapons and slave trades, Caracas homicides, and of course the Venezuelan co-conspirators that made all this good stuff possible for him. Arrested in Colombia under a warrant from New York, Makled was to be extradited there, which would have exposed everything. A New York court wants to know how far up the food and power chain the crimes go. For example, Makled says he gave Chávez US$2 million for his last campaign -as if Chavez needed it. And the heads of military intelligence, the armed forces, and the justice and security ministries are allegedly among Makled's secret partners.

Sorry to say, the world will have to wait for another day to hear Makled's testimony, because he is going to be tried in Caracas, where few interesting questions will be asked. This came about because of a personal talk between presidents Chávez and Santos -yes, that's the same devil Santos that Chávez said he would never talk to if he got elected. Suddenly, Chávez wanted to hug and kiss Santos. So after the meeting, Santos pledged to extradite Makled to Caracas, and by coincidence, surely, Chávez granted access to US$7 billion of trade with Colombia which he had closed to former president Uribe because he waged an effective drug war against the FARC with help from the USA. Colombia gains totally from bilateral trade because Chávez has destroyed domestic agriculture and manufacturing to the point where Venezuela now imports everything it consumes. My God, Venezuela even imports oil and gas from Colombia!

Makled might worry about the Venezuelan prisons, where the homicide rate is higher than on the streets of Caracas -imagine that! All kinds of human rights accidents happen in those prisons. Several years ago, a retired general went to prison for opining that some prisoners appeared executed by flamethrower weapons. If he does get to court, how vigorously the prosecutors will ask Makled about his co-conspirators in powerful places remains to be seen. Ironically, President Obama was just in Latin America praising democracy, trade and human rights while railing against terrorism, drugs, money-laundering and warfare, but here are three words that never passed his lips: Makled, Chávez or Santos. Where's he coming from?
michaelrowan22@gmail.com