Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2027 

MEDIA NOTE

OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN

SEPTEMBER 16, 2026

The following is a Presidential Determination submitted to Congress September 15, 2026:  

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 (P.L. 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, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the 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 current counterdrug efforts, or coordination with the United States.  Consistent with the statutory definition of a major drug transit or drug producing country set forth in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, major drug transit or illicit drug producing countries are placed on the list due to a combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs or precursor chemicals to transit or be produced, even if a government has engaged in robust and diligent narcotics control and law enforcement measures. 

Pursuant to section 706(2)(A) of the FRAA, I hereby designate Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia as having failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to make substantial efforts to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements and to take the counternarcotics measures required by 22 U.S.C. § 2291h(a)(1).  Included with this determination are justifications for the designations of Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia as described in section 706(2)(B) of the FRAA.  I have also determined, in accordance with section 706(3)(A) of the FRAA, that provision of United States assistance to Bolivia, Burma and Colombia is currently vital to the national interests of the United States.    

My Administration has made historic progress in protecting the American people from deadly drugs and vicious narcoterrorist organizations.  Under my Administration, our southern border is the most sealed and secure in American history, thanks to the largest investments in border security and law enforcement in our Nation’s history.  After four years of open border chaos, seizures of fentanyl and other drugs being smuggled into the United States have been reduced by more than half, and drug overdose deaths have plunged.  My Administration has saved tens of thousands of American lives from this scourge.  The narcoterrorists responsible for this invasion are either dead, in jail, or living in fear knowing they will be next to face American justice.  I have unleashed the strongest military in the history of the world to strike narcoterrorists wherever they threaten our country.  Behind the might of the American military, my Administration has destroyed cartel infrastructure, shut down former trafficking highways across sea and land borders, and captured and killed hundreds of the most vicious narcoterrorists.  Under the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, an alliance with over a dozen countries in the Western Hemisphere, we have achieved historic results, drastically reducing United States-bound drug flows and seizing billions of dollars of illicit cartel finances.  United States law enforcement agencies are reporting record drug seizures, and our allies are extraditing more cartel bosses to the United States than ever before.  We have inflicted unprecedented losses on our enemies, and we are just getting started.    

While my Administration has successfully secured our borders from invasion, Canada and Mexico need to do far more to stop the flows of deadly drugs into our country.  Fentanyl continues to be illicitly produced in clandestine Canadian labs, and precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs continue to enter the United States through Canada.  Canada needs to take meaningful action to dismantle drug labs, strengthen supply chain security, and degrade criminal networks and Chinese gangs operating along our northern border.  We recognize Mexican President Sheinbaum’s administration for seizing greater volumes of drugs, dismantling clandestine laboratories, and deploying additional law enforcement and military resources to our shared border.  Additionally, United States-Mexican security cooperation has helped eliminate some of the world’s most notorious cartel bosses, including “El Mencho.” However, Mexico must take additional action against the narcoterrorist organizations that dominate vast areas of its territory and continue to threaten the American people.  Mexico needs to bolster supply chain integrity by soliciting greater private industry participation and significantly increasing inspections at its ports of entry.  Additionally, Mexico’s current investments in its security forces are insufficient to sustain and expand its campaigns against narcoterrorists, their finances, and their criminal networks.  This includes exposing, arresting, and prosecuting the many corrupt public officials that have aided and abetted the cartels and betrayed their own country’s security and sovereignty.     

The drug threat to America extends beyond our northern and southern borders.  The PRC continues to be the world’s largest producer of many of the precursor chemicals used to illicitly produce fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other deadly synthetic drugs.  I have raised this directly with State Chairman Xi Jinping, and last year, at my request, the PRC implemented new requirements for its companies to obtain licenses before exporting designated precursor chemicals to North America.  However, criminals continue to find ways around these controls through the use of unregulated precursor chemicals.  The PRC needs to take more aggressive action to effectively reduce the flow of these substances by scheduling additional chemical precursors and substances requested by the United States.  This enhanced cooperation will enable timely prosecution of the criminals responsible for supplying drug traffickers with deadly precursor chemicals.    

Other governments have taken measures to confront drug trafficking and narcoterrorism.  Dramatic political changes in South America over the past year have created historic openings for United States cooperation with governments in the region.  In Venezuela, thanks to my Administration’s arrest and removal of former illegitimate dictator and drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro, we are already seeing the results of growing cooperation with the country’s interim government against cartels, including the elimination of Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero. Given the positive steps taken under interim President Delcy Rodríguez, I have determined Venezuela should no longer be designated as having failed demonstrably to fulfill its drug control commitments.  I expect to see continued, measurable progress from the interim government in dismantling narcoterrorist groups and stopping drug trafficking through Venezuela to the United States.   

After decades of inept socialist governments, the United States welcomed the Bolivian people’s democratic choice in the 2025 elections and the opportunity to open a new chapter in United States-Bolivia relations under President Rodrigo Paz.  Cooperation between Bolivia and the United States has significantly expanded over the last year, and I welcome the resumption of law enforcement coordination between our governments to target illicit drug production and criminal networks.  Bolivia’s extradition of narcoterrorist Sebastián Marset to the United States in March 2026 highlighted our growing friendship and cooperation and prevented one of our hemisphere’s most notorious drug traffickers from shipping more drugs to American communities.  However, the new government has not yet had sufficient time to reduce coca cultivation that increased under the previous government.  Corruption in Bolivia continues to facilitate drug trafficking and impede investigations.  If Bolivia can demonstrate progress in reducing illicit drug production in the coming year, and make substantive progress in tackling the endemic corruption weakening Bolivia, I will consider revisiting its status as having failed demonstrably to uphold its counterdrug commitments. 

The people of Colombia made the courageous choice to elect Abelardo de la Espriella as President.  He has pledged to lead an aggressive campaign against coca cultivation and cocaine production, which reached record levels under the failed socialist policies of his predecessor.  Colombia is poised to resume its place as our foremost security partner in the hemisphere, and the country’s military, police, prosecutors, and courts now finally have a worthy champion in President de la Espriella.  If, as expected, Colombia makes progress on aggressive coca eradication and dismantling its narcoterrorist networks over the coming year, I will consider lifting the country’s “failed demonstrably” status, which remains in place solely due to the incompetence and chaos produced by the previous far-left government in office throughout the bulk of the past year.    

I welcome Prime Minister Modi and the Government of India’s efforts to address illicit opium poppy cultivation and bolster supply chain integrity.  I look forward to continued cooperation through the United States-India Drug Policy Framework.  In Peru, I likewise welcome the commitment of new President Keiko Fujimori to work with the United States and other allies to destroy the criminals ailing Peru and reduce cocaine flows bound for the United States.  I also applaud three of America’s greatest allies in our hemisphere – Argentina, Ecuador, and El Salvador – for their leadership, resolve, and success in the fight against narcoterrorism. 

While many governments in the Western Hemisphere are taking courageous action to reduce drug flows and eradicate cartels, the Government of Brazil has failed to confront the designated foreign terrorist organizations Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho, which have transformed Brazil into a hub for global cocaine flows.  These Brazilian terrorist organizations are a growing threat to peace and security around the world, and Brazil’s government urgently must take aggressive measures to confront and defeat them before they spread and grow.  Unsurprisingly, for a socialist dictatorship, the illegitimate Ortego-Murillo regime in Nicaragua has failed to take sufficient action against drug trafficking and the complicity of regime actors in the drug trade. 

In Burma, the military regime has made little discernible effort to crack down on its drug economy, making the country the world’s largest source of opium poppy and one of the largest suppliers of methamphetamine.  Despite the Taliban’s announced opium poppy ban, Afghanistan continues to supply drug markets across the world, likely funding Islamist terrorism.  For these reasons, I am again determining that Burma and Afghanistan have failed demonstrably to uphold their drug control obligations.     

You are authorized and directed to submit this determination, with the accompanying memoranda of justification, under Section 706 of the FRAA, to the Congress, and to publish this determination in the Federal Register.