editorial comment Time to send in Pat Robertson! Given what's happening in Mexico, paraphernalia can only surmise that this may not be the last of the "coalition of the willing" to bail out of that war......

The Bush administration Thursday scratched Venezuela off its list of allies in the war on drugs, saying that President Hugo Chávez's government has replaced effective law enforcement officers with political loyalists and cut off bilateral anti-drug cooperation with the United States.

But the White House waived the cuts in U.S. aid usually attached to the so-called ''decertification'' so the it can continue to finance programs to strengthen democracy in Venezuela -- a double slam at the leftist Chávez. The only other nation to be decertified was Burma.

The move is expected to further exacerbate the already tense diplomatic relations between the two governments. Asked about the certification process, Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel said, ``We reject it. No one has the right to judge the internal situation of another ... it's infantile.''

Venezuelan officials say seizures are at record levels and they have lately moved to improve cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. U.S. officials said the Venezuelans figures are wrong and that the real interceptions are significantly down.

The White House said in a statement that Venezuela had failed to eradicate coca and opium poppy fields near its border with Colombia and failed to address ``the increasing use of Venezuelan territory to transport drugs to the United States.''

Venezuela's national counternarcotics director, chief narcotics prosecutor, and head of the financial intelligence unit ``were fired and replaced with Chávez loyalists who lack the necessary training to perform these functions.''

The administration also said that the government had done too little to stop corruption among the Latin American country's law enforcement and military officials.

Decertification means a country is barred from receiving most kinds of U.S. aid except counterdrug cooperation.

The announcement came on the day Chávez traveled to New York to take part in the U.N. General Assembly

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