Venezuela dismantles 4 cocaine labs

Caracas, Aug 27 (EFE).- Venezuela's National Guard dismantled four cocaine labs near the border with Colombia, where 400 kilos of coca paste and 300 kilos of cocaine were discovered, the interior minister said Thursday.

Tarek El Aissami told a press conference no arrests were made in the operation because the people inside the labs "fled to Colombia and took refuge there" when they heard the National Guard helicopters.

The drug seizure took place in a mountainous region of the northwestern state of Zulia, frequently used by drug traffickers because of the ease of fleeing to Colombia, the world's leading producer of cocaine.

El Aissami said the people who fled the operation "surely are protected" in the neighboring country.

The National Guard also announced the seizure of 22 kilos of marijuana that was found on the premises of a postal services company in Maracaibo, Zulia's capital, and was to be shipped to Caracas.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup he says Washington backed, has threatened to freeze all ties with Colombia over that nation's decision to allow U.S. troops access to several of its military bases and Bogota's insinuations that he is arming Colombian leftist rebels.

Colombia says socialist Venezuela and other Latin American countries have nothing to fear from the base deal, which Bogota maintains will bolster the fight against drug trafficking and terrorist activity.

Chavez this week scoffed at that explanation, accusing Colombia of being a "narco-state" that lives off the cocaine trade. EFE