For Chavez The DEA is a Branch of the CIA

There was one area in which Venezuela kept a relatively collaborative approach with the US Government: drug enforcement. Not any more. President Chavez said that he will not longer co-operate with DEA operations in Venezuela because they were only a cover up for US spying operations: "The DEA was using the fight against drug trafficking as a mask, to support drug trafficking, to carry out intelligence in Venezuela against the government"… "Under those circumstances we have decided to make a clean break with those accord," Mr. Chavez said to the BBC.
After this formal separation Venezuela has all the elements to become a services and logistics hub for the drug cartels: weak institutions, uncontrolled financial services, an ideal geographical situation and perhaps a more needed blind government.