Spinning the Story For Western Consumers

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the US government has been using the War On Drugs as a pretext for spying on his government. Of course, we never hear that sort of story in the Western press. We only hear it when the story has been turned around like this:

THE United States has rejected charges by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that US drug agents were spying on his country and accused Caracas of flagging cooperation in the fight against narcotics trafficking.

"The accusations that somehow the (US) Drug Enforcement Agency is involved in espionage are baseless," said Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "There's no substance or justification for them."

Mr Ereli also described as "regrettable" Mr Chavez's announcement that Venezuela was going to end cooperation with the DEA and said "failure to cooperate only benefits narco-traffickers."

Bad Mr Chavez. Bad man. Bad, bad, bad...