SUMMARY
In the annual Presidential Determination on major drug transit and illicit drug producing countries for fiscal year 2027 - submitted to Congress on 15 September 2026 and published in the Federal Register on 18 September - the Trump administration removed Venezuela from the sub-category of countries deemed to have "failed demonstrably" to meet their international counternarcotics commitments. It was the first time Venezuela had left that category since 2005, when Hugo Chavez expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Venezuela nonetheless remained on the broader list of 23 major drug transit or producing countries. The determination credited the January 2026 arrest and removal of Nicolas Maduro and the cooperation of interim president Delcy Rodriguez, including the killing of Tren de Aragua leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero, alias "Nino Guerrero", in a U.S. operation in June. President Trump added that he might also remove Colombia from the failed list.
OUTCOME
The move was widely read as a reward for the interim government. But InSight Crime's on-the-ground investigations found that a large share of the cocaine produced in South America still moves through Venezuela, exploiting its porous border with Colombia and long coastline before transiting Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago and the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) toward the United States and Europe. Analysts noted that the U.S. maritime strike campaign and Maduro's fall rerouted trafficking - pushing loads east toward Guyana, Suriname and Brazil - rather than stopping it, and that deals between traffickers, armed groups and corrupt military sectors remained largely in place.
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