Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2021, 60351-60353 [2020-21390]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 187 (Friday, September 25, 2020)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60351-60353]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-21390]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 85 , No. 187 / Friday, September 25, 2020 / 
Presidential Documents

[[Page 60351]]


                Presidential Determination No. 2020-11 of September 16, 
                2020

                
Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit 
                or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal 
                Year 2021

                Memorandum for the Secretary of State

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States, 
                including section 706(1) of the Foreign Relations 
                Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-
                228) (FRAA), I hereby identify the following countries 
                as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing 
                countries: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, 
                Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, 
                Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, 
                India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, 
                Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

                A country's presence on the foregoing list is not 
                necessarily a reflection of its government's 
                counternarcotics efforts or level of cooperation with 
                the United States. Consistent with the statutory 
                definition of a major drug transit or major illicit 
                drug producing country set forth in section 481(e)(2) 
                and (5) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as 
                amended (Public Law 87-195) (FAA), the reason 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 engaged in robust and diligent narcotics control 
                measures.

                Illicit drugs inflict enormous harm on the health and 
                safety of the American people and threaten the national 
                security of the United States. While my Administration 
                has achieved steady progress in stemming the tide of 
                our country's drug epidemic, transnational criminal 
                organizations continually challenge our success by 
                violating our borders and flooding our homeland with 
                these deadly substances.

                The United States is taking the fight to these criminal 
                organizations and their enablers on an unprecedented 
                scale. This April, I initiated the most significant 
                counternarcotic operations in decades targeting the 
                illicit drug trade in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific 
                by deploying U.S. military assets to U.S. Southern 
                Command in cooperation with 22 international allies. 
                These operations led to the seizure of more than 80 
                metric tons of cocaine and other dangerous drugs, 
                depriving transnational criminal organizations of more 
                than $1.8 billion in profits and putting drug kingpins 
                on notice that they are squarely in the crosshairs of 
                the United States.

                The most complicit kingpin in this Hemisphere is the 
                Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro. This March, a U.S. 
                court indicted Maduro for narcoterrorism and conspiracy 
                to smuggle cocaine into the United States. In response, 
                the U.S. Department of State announced a $15 million 
                reward for information leading to his arrest or 
                conviction. He joined a multitude of other regime 
                cronies who are either under U.S. indictment or were 
                sanctioned for drug crimes by the Department of the 
                Treasury. The United States will continue to support 
                the Venezuelan people, Interim President Juan Guaido, 
                and the democratically elected National Assembly, and 
                will work together with the legitimate Interim 
                Government of Venezuela to stop drug trafficking and 
                root out the criminal elements that have exploited that 
                country. Maduro's illegitimate narco-regime should face 
                justice for its crimes.

[[Page 60352]]

                While bringing criminals like Maduro to justice remains 
                an urgent priority, the United States also needs other 
                governments in the Western Hemisphere to assume greater 
                responsibility for reducing illegal drug supplies.

                In Colombia, President Ivan Duque and his government 
                remain strong partners of the United States, and 
                Colombian police and military forces have shown great 
                bravery and commitment by targeting high-level drug 
                traffickers, interdicting drug shipments, and manually 
                eradicating coca. Nevertheless, coca cultivation and 
                cocaine production remain at unacceptably high levels. 
                To reach our shared 5-year goal to reduce coca 
                cultivation and cocaine production by half by the end 
                of 2023, Colombia must move forward with resuming 
                aerial eradication, which remains an irreplaceable tool 
                in the government's arsenal alongside manual 
                eradication and alternative economic development.

                It is also of great concern that coca cultivation and 
                cocaine production remain near historical highs in 
                Peru, another longstanding U.S. ally. Peru is a valued 
                law enforcement partner of the United States and has 
                demonstrated continuing commitment to fighting all 
                aspects of the drug trade. I call on the Peruvian 
                government to resume eradication operations in the 
                country's high yield coca producing regions, including 
                the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers.

                Since the resignation of former President Evo Morales 
                in November 2019, U.S.-Bolivian cooperation against 
                drug trafficking networks has increased under Bolivia's 
                transitional government. The transitional government 
                made important strides in drug interdiction and resumed 
                processing extradition requests of drug traffickers by 
                the United States. Nevertheless, coca cultivation 
                continues to exceed legal limits under Bolivia's own 
                domestic laws for medicinal and traditional use, and 
                the Bolivian state has taken insufficient measures to 
                safeguard the country's licit coca markets from 
                criminal exploitation. If the Bolivian government, 
                including its Legislative Assembly, takes sufficient 
                steps in the year ahead to remedy these shortcomings 
                and continues the progress made over the past 10 months 
                under the transitional government, I will consider 
                removing Bolivia from next year's list of countries 
                that have failed demonstrably to uphold their drug 
                control responsibilities.

                Last year, I warned that I would consider determining 
                Mexico had failed demonstrably to uphold its 
                international drug control commitments if it did not 
                intensify its efforts to increase poppy eradication, 
                interdict illicit drugs before they cross the border 
                into the United States, increase its prosecutions of 
                drug traffickers and seize their assets, and develop a 
                comprehensive drug control strategy. This year, Mexico 
                successfully passed asset forfeiture reforms, increased 
                extraditions of dangerous drug traffickers to the 
                United States, made substantial progress in completing 
                its first poppy yield study in 17 years, and produced a 
                counterdrug strategy. While these are signs of 
                progress, more must be done.

                Mexico remains the source of nearly all heroin and 
                methamphetamine seized in the United States, and a 
                transit route for most of the cocaine available in our 
                country. Moreover, Mexican cartels take advantage of 
                uneven precursor chemical controls in Mexico to 
                manufacture deadly drugs, such as fentanyl, inside 
                Mexico and smuggle them into the United States. Mexican 
                drug interdictions remain far too low in the face of 
                these critical drug threats. These cartels present a 
                clear threat to Mexico and the Mexican government's 
                ability to exert effective control over parts of its 
                country.

                Mexico must clearly demonstrate its commitment to 
                dismantling the cartels and their criminal enterprises 
                and do more to protect the lives of Mexican and 
                American citizens threatened by these groups. Mexico 
                needs to continue to extradite key criminal actors, 
                step up comprehensive investigations and drug and asset 
                seizures, and implement a robust data-based poppy 
                eradication program tied to sustainable alternative 
                development. The Mexican government should acknowledge 
                the alarming trend of fentanyl production inside its 
                territory. It must prioritize law enforcement action 
                targeting cartel production and trafficking of 
                fentanyl--the leading substance involved in drug

[[Page 60353]]

                overdose deaths in the United States--and strengthen 
                efforts targeting fentanyl precursor chemicals 
                overwhelmingly trafficked from China, as well as 
                fentanyl smuggling and production. More must also be 
                done to target the cartels' increasing production of 
                methamphetamine.

                The United States remains ready to deepen its 
                partnership with Mexico to address these shared 
                challenges and welcomes the opportunity to develop 
                joint drug control goals with Mexico and bilateral 
                investigations built on transparent and open sharing of 
                investigative information and evidence leading to 
                successful prosecutions.

                Many Mexican military and law enforcement 
                professionals, in cooperation with their U.S. 
                counterparts, are bravely confronting the transnational 
                criminal organizations that threaten both of our 
                countries. Unless the Mexican government demonstrates 
                substantial progress in the coming year backed by 
                verifiable data, Mexico will be at serious risk of 
                being found to have failed demonstrably to uphold its 
                international drug control commitments.

                Pursuant to section 706(2)(A) of the FRAA, I hereby 
                designate Bolivia and the illegitimate regime of 
                Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela as having failed 
                demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to 
                their obligations under international counternarcotics 
                agreements and to take the measures required by section 
                489(a)(1) of the FAA. Included with this determination 
                are justifications for the designations of Bolivia and 
                the Maduro regime, as required by section 706(2)(B) of 
                the FRAA.

                I have also determined, in accordance with provisions 
                of section 706(3)(A) of the FRAA, that United States 
                programs that support the legitimate interim government 
                in Venezuela and the Bolivian government are vital to 
                the national interests of the United States.

                You are authorized and directed to submit this 
                designation, with the Bolivia and Venezuela memoranda 
                of justification, under section 706 of the FRAA, to the 
                Congress, and to publish it in the Federal Register.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, September 16, 2020

[FR Doc. 2020-21390
Filed 9-24-20; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-P