US: Obama maintains drug blacklist of countries
Thu Sep 17 02:36:30 EST 2009
Wed Sep 16 16:36:30 UTC 2009
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 AP - US President Barack Obama has made no changes to the annual US list of major illicit drug producers and transit countries.
The US president is required to make the designation to Congress annually. They were released by the State Department late Tuesday.
The 20 countries designated are: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Burma, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.
Of these, Bolivia, Burma and Venezuela were found to have "failed demonstrably" to meet commitments to combat production and trafficking of drugs.
That designation can result in US aid cuts, but Obama spared both Bolivia and Venezuela, citing a national interest waiver.
