Georgetown:The Ministry of Home Affairs tonight issued a release stating the BBC website reported, US President Barack Obama has added two Central American countries to a blacklist of countries considered major producers or transit routes for illegal drugs.
According to the report, US State Department officials said cartels were using the two Central American nations as routes for smuggling cocaine from South America north to Mexico and the US.
A total of twenty-two (22) countries, worldwide, now appear on the drugs blacklist. Guyana does not appear on that list.
Three countries were deemed to have “failed demonstrably” in the fight against drugs. Guyana does not feature among those countries. A country is so deemed when it does not fulfill its obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements and conventions. Such a designation can lead to a country attracting sanctions, by the US.
The report by the US underscores the success of Guyana’s counter-narcotics efforts, over the years, which clearly surpasses many countries in the Latin America and Caribbean Region.
