US removes Venezuela from list of drug transit, production countries

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has decided to drop Venezuela from its list of major drug transit or production countries, and is considering removing Colombia and Bolivia. “In Venezuela, thanks to my Administration’s arrest and removal of former illegitimate dictator and drug trafficker Nicolas Maduro, we are already seeing the results of growing cooperation with the country’s interim government against cartels,” Trump said in a statement submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday and released Wednesday. The US abducted Maduro, a leftist and long-time critic of Washington, in January and is trying him in a New York City federal court on drug trafficking charges.