Three South American countries singled out by US for not fighting drug trafficking
In the list released on Monday, Trump included Bolivia, Colombia, and Venezuela
The US Government of President Donald Trump has signaled five countries – three of them in South America – for failing to comply with their international anti-drug obligations over the past 12 months. In addition to Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia, Washington added Burma and Afghanistan to the infamous list.
In the case of Bolivia, the designation came with a waiver to prevent major aid cuts, as Washington did acknowledge some positive steps but insisted more was needed. The Bolivian government has taken some positive steps to increase cocaine seizures and to work with US law enforcement to bring drug criminals to justice, including Maximiliano Dávila, the country’s corrupt former anti-drug chief, the US Government admitted.
Bolivia was also included in the list of major drug transit countries or significant illicit drug-producing countries along with Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Burma, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Peru, and Venezuela.
For Colombia, it was the first time in nearly 30 years that the country was singled out for failing to cooperate. The US pointed to a surge in cocaine production and a slowdown in manual coca eradication under President Gustavo Petro’s leftwing administration. Petro criticized the decision, arguing that his country has sacrificed lives to combat a problem driven by US demand.
“What we have been doing is not really relevant to the Colombian people,” Petro said. “It’s to stop North American society from sniffing cocaine, he added. Petro has denied various extradition requests and criticized the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. “Under my administration, Colombia does not collaborate in assassinations,” Petro stressed.
Trump blamed the Colombian administration for this week’s decertification but pledged to review the measure if Colombia’s government takes more aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and trafficking, among other initiatives.
The Republican administration has also designated Nicolás Maduro’s Bolivarian regime as a major drug trafficking network. In addition, Trump announced that US forces have conducted at least two strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, resulting in fatalities. Human rights groups and some US senators have questioned the legality and ethics of these military strikes.
“In Venezuela, the criminal regime of indicted drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro leads one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks in the world, and the United States will continue to seek to bring Maduro and other members of his complicit regime to justice for their crimes,” Trump underlined. “We will also target Venezuelan foreign terrorist organizations such as Tren de Aragua and purge them from our country. Trump argued that the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean consisted of big bags of cocaine and fentanyl.” Maduro has accused the US of using the anti-drug effort as a pretext for a military operation aimed at regime change.
