US removes Venezuela from list of drug transit, production countries

Trump says country has made progress against narcotics since Maduro’s removal, may also remove Colombia and Bolivia.United States President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to remove from its list of countries which have failed to demonstrably combat illegal drug trafficking for the first time in more than 20 years, and is considering removing Colombia and Bolivia.“In Venezuela, thanks to my Administration’s arrest and removal of former illegitimate dictator and drug trafficker Nicolas Maduro, we are already seeing the results of growing cooperation with the country’s interim government against cartels,” Trump said in a statement submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday and released Wednesday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Rubio heads to Ecuador, Colombia, Peru after right-wing victories in regionlist 2 of 3Marco Rubio says US seeks more economic and security ties in Latin Americalist 3 of 3As Chavez and Maduro images disappear, is Venezuela entering a new chapter?end of listThe 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.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.