The United States announced on Wednesday that Venezuela is no longer classified as a country that has \u201cfailed demonstrably\u201d to meet international counternarcotics obligations, a status it had held since 2005. President Donald Trump made the declaration as part of the Fiscal Year 2027 assessment of major drug\u2011transit and illicit drug\u2011producing nations.<\/p>\n
While the removal signals a diplomatic shift, Venezuela still appears on the broader U.S. list of 23 major drug\u2011transit or illicit drug\u2011producing countries. The change only affects the specific \u201cfailed demonstrably\u201d designation, not the overall assessment of the nation\u2019s role in drug trafficking.<\/p>\n
The administration attributed the decision to \u201cpositive steps\u201d taken by the interim government headed by Delcy Rodr\u00edguez. U.S. officials pointed to recent actions against the Tren de Aragua criminal network and the reported June death of its leader H\u00e9ctor Rusthenford Guerrero, known as \u201cNi\u00f1o Guerrero,\u201d as evidence of progress.<\/p>\n
This policy adjustment follows a broader thaw in U.S.\u2013Venezuelan relations after the January 2026 removal and arrest of former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, marking a departure from decades of criticism that began when Caracas halted cooperation with the DEA in 2005.<\/p>\n
Despite the removal, existing U.S. sanctions remain in force under the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Trump emphasized that Washington will continue to watch Venezuela\u2019s performance closely, expecting ongoing measurable advances in dismantling criminal groups and curbing drug trafficking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump announces Venezuela\u2019s removal from failed drug\u2011control list<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}