The U.S. President, Donald Trump, has placed Belize on a list of Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2018. The presidential determination was made earlier this week. Also included in the list are Caribbean countries such as the Bahamas, Jamaica and Haiti as well as all of Central America including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and neighbouring Mexico.

Further south, Colombia, Ecuador Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela are named. Afghanistan, Burma, India, Laos, Pakistan also made it on the list. The release states that the reason major drug transit or illicit drug producing countries are placed on the list is the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to transit or be produced, even if a government has carried out the most assiduous narcotics control law enforcement measures.

In the case of Bolivia and Venezuela, these countries are designated as having failed demonstrably during the previous twelve months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements. Colombia was spared under that classification because the Colombian National Police and Armed Forces are close law enforcement and security partners in the U.S. and are improving interdiction efforts.

Channel 5