THE speaker of Venezuela’s parliament has hit back against allegations of his involvement in drug trafficking.

National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello asserted on Tuesday that he would never do anything that could hurt the South American nation’s young people.

He told the national assembly: “Those who today accuse me today of drug trafficking should present a single piece of evidence, just one.”

His comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported that US officials are investigating Mr Cabello and other members of the government for trafficking cocaine and money laundering.

The US newspaper story was based on reports from earlier this year that Mr Cabello’s bodyguard had defected to the US and had named him as the head of a drug ring of political and military officials.

He is now suing several of the news outlets that published reports of the claims.