Rangel Silva's appointment worries US Under Secretary of State

"We are concerned about the appointment (of General Henry Rangel Silva) because ... he is included in a US list for his alleged links to drug trafficking and guerrilla organizations," María Otero, the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, told Colombian radio station RCN

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EL UNIVERSAL

Thursday January 19, 2012 02:39 PM

María Otero, the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, admitted on Thursday to be worried by the appointment of General-in-Chief Henry Rangel Silva as the new Venezuelan Defense Minister. Rangel Silva has been accused by the US government of links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Colombian drug trafficking organizations.

"We are concerned about the appointment (of General Henry Rangel Silva) because ... he is included in a US list for his alleged links to drug trafficking and guerrilla organizations," Otero told Colombian radio station RCN, AP quoted.

It is "extremely important that all countries fight drug trafficking and make this fight a priority,'' said the US official, who arrived at Colombia for a two-day visit.

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Mafias and politics in the surroundings

Lieutenant colonel Miguel Angel Urrieta was unlucky to have his phone number on Tatiana Orozco's cell phone; who was labeled as "The Queen of the Rebar." That fact and some text messages exchanged with Orozco were enough for public prosecutors to consider him a party to the shady deals with rebar which spread over a scandal from the steel plants of Sidor.