Biden Targets Venezuela and Bolivia on Counternarcotics Efforts

Biden said in a memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, released by the White House: "I hereby designate Bolivia and Venezuela as having failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts during the previous 12 months to ... adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements."

RELATED:
President Maduro Boosts Anti-Drug Fight in Venezuela

Biden claimed the two countries also have failed to take measures required by provisions of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, but he had determined U.S. "programs that support Bolivia and Venezuela are vital to the national interests of the United States."

Biden also implicated Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru as the main illicit drug producing and transit countries worldwide.

Biden's memo failed to mention the United States as the largest consumer country of illicit drugs worldwide, as well as the politicized nature of targeting both Venezuela and Bolivia, as the only two on the list to have expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from their territories due to its counterproductive, interventionist and failed counternarcotics efforts.