United States President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to drop Venezuela from its list of major drug transit or production countries, and is considering removing Colombia and Bolivia. The US abducted Maduro, a leftist and long-time critic of Washington, in January and is trying him in a New York City federal court on drug trafficking charges. Washington has since been working with interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, securing agreements for US oil companies to access resources in the oil-rich country.
Under US law, the president must inform lawmakers annually about other countries’ efforts at combating narcotics production and trafficking. The US is restricted from giving some types of financial assistance to countries on the list. Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia were designated as having “failed demonstrably” by Trump in the recent report, which also criticised Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Nicaragua.
Trump praised Bolivia and Colombia for electing new conservative leaders that broke with previous leftist governments, saying he expects them to ramp up efforts at coca eradication and combating “narcoterrorist” groups but would keep their designations in place for the time being. Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia are now among those countries led by leaders who have aligned themselves with Trump. Many have also joined the Shield of the Americas programme, a regional US-led military and security alliance, which members say is aimed at combating narcotics trafficking and other criminal activity in the region.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced it was redirecting $52m in foreign military funding towards Latin America, away from partners in Europe and the Middle East.
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