US puts Belize on “regions of concern” drug list

Although they are no longer referring to it as a “certification” process the United States government today released its list of countries President Bill Clinton considers to be major illicit drug producing or drug transit countries. Belize, which was on the list of “major” countries last year has been moved to the list of “regions of concern”. In a letter from the White House to the Chairmen of the House Committee on International Relations and Appropriations, Clinton says although drug traffickers have used Belizean territory in previous years, recently the US has detected “significantly reduced drug flows to and through Belize”. He cautioned however that if future monitoring indicates a resumption of the trade, Belize will move back to the majors list. Countries on the major’s list this year are: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Like Belize, Aruba was moved to the “regions of concern” list. The US Embassy in Belize stresses that the inclusion of a country on the majors list does not necessarily reflect that country’s counter drug trafficking efforts or the extent of cooperation with the United States. President Clinton’s letter says the choices are made based on a combination of geographical, commercial and/or economic factors.