Venezuela drug flights up, U.S. says

While Mexican authorities continued battling their drug trafficking problems, things farther south appear to be taking a turn for the worse.

Suspected drug flights from Venezuela to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola rose 44% over the first three months of the year, U.S. officials say, a surge in activity that some believe was behind Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's expressions of willingness to resume anti-drug cooperation with Washington.

Despite the possible rapprochement with Chavez three years after the leftist leader suspended joint anti-drug efforts, U.S. counter-narcotics officials in Venezuela and the Caribbean say they see no sign of cooperation or of reduced traffic, reports the Times' Chris Kraul.

Read on about Venezuela's drug flights here.

For more posts on the drug trade in the Americas, click here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Venezuela's foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, right, and Venezuela's interior minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, wave to journalists during an anti-drug summit in the Cartagena, Colombia, on Aug. 1. Fernando Vergara / Associated Press