Presidential Document2026-19251
Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2027
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Published
September 18, 2026
Signed
September 11, 2026
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 180 (Friday, September 18, 2026)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 59687-59694]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-19251]
[[Page 59685]]
Vol. 91
Friday,
No. 180
September 18, 2026
Part VIII
The President
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Presidential Determination No. 2026-23 of September 11, 2026--
Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug
Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2027
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 91 , No. 180 / Friday, September 18, 2026 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 59687]]
Presidential Determination No. 2026-23 of September 11,
2026
Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit
or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal
Year 2027
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States,
including section 706(1) of the Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-
228) (FRAA), I hereby identify the following countries
as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing
countries: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia,
Burma, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Colombia,
Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica,
Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and
Venezuela.
A country's presence on the foregoing list is not
necessarily a reflection of its government's
counterdrug efforts or level of cooperation with the
United States. Consistent with the statutory definition
of a major drug transit or major illicit drug producing
country set forth in sections 481(e)(2) and 481(e)(5)
of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended
(Public Law 87-195) (FAA), the reason countries are
placed on the list is the combination of geographic,
commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs or
precursor chemicals to be transited or produced, even
if a government has engaged in robust and diligent
narcotics control and law enforcement measures.
Pursuant to section 706(2)(A) of the FRAA, I hereby
designate Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia as
having failed demonstrably during the previous 12
months to make substantial efforts to adhere to their
obligations under international counternarcotics
agreements and to take the counternarcotics measures
required by section 489 of the FAA Included with this
determination are justifications for the designations
of Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia, as
required by section 706(2)(B) of the FRAA. I have also
determined, in accordance with the provisions of
section 706(3)(A) of the FRAA, that United States
assistance to Bolivia, Burma, and Colombia is vital to
the national interests of the United States.
My Administration has made historic progress in
protecting the American people from deadly drugs and
vicious narcoterrorist organizations. Under my
Administration, our southern border is the most sealed
and secure in American history, thanks to the largest
investments in border security and law enforcement in
our Nation's history. After 4 years of open border
chaos, seizures of fentanyl and other drugs being
smuggled into the United States have been reduced by
more than half, and drug overdose deaths have plunged.
My Administration has saved tens of thousands of
American lives from this scourge. The narcoterrorists
responsible for this invasion are either dead, in jail,
or living in fear knowing they will be next to face
American justice. I have unleashed the strongest
military in the history of the world to strike
narcoterrorists wherever they threaten our country.
Behind the might of the American military, my
Administration has destroyed cartel infrastructure,
shut down former trafficking highways across sea and
land borders, and captured and killed hundreds of the
most vicious narcoterrorists. Under the Americas
Counter Cartel Coalition, an alliance with over a dozen
countries in the Western Hemisphere, we have achieved
historic results,
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drastically reducing United States-bound drug flows and
seizing billions of dollars of illicit cartel finances.
United States law enforcement agencies are reporting
record drug seizures, and our allies are extraditing
more cartel bosses to the United States than ever
before. We have inflicted unprecedented losses on our
enemies, and we are just getting started.
While my Administration has successfully secured our
borders from invasion, Canada and Mexico need to do far
more to stop the flows of deadly drugs into our
country. Fentanyl continues to be illicitly produced in
clandestine Canadian labs, and precursor chemicals and
synthetic drugs continue to enter the United States
through Canada. Canada needs to take meaningful action
to dismantle drug labs, strengthen supply chain
security, and degrade criminal networks and Chinese
gangs operating along our northern border. We recognize
Mexican President Sheinbaum's administration for
seizing greater volumes of drugs, dismantling
clandestine laboratories, and deploying additional law
enforcement and military resources to our shared
border. Additionally, United States-Mexican security
cooperation has helped eliminate some of the world's
most notorious cartel bosses, including ``El Mencho.''
However, Mexico must take additional action against the
narcoterrorist organizations that dominate vast areas
of its territory and continue to threaten the American
people. Mexico needs to bolster supply chain integrity
by soliciting greater private industry participation
and significantly increasing inspections at its ports
of entry. Additionally, Mexico's current investments in
its security forces are insufficient to sustain and
expand its campaigns against narcoterrorists, their
finances, and their criminal networks. This includes
exposing, arresting, and prosecuting the many corrupt
public officials who have aided and abetted the cartels
and betrayed their own country's security and
sovereignty.
The drug threat to America extends beyond our northern
and southern borders. The PRC continues to be the
world's largest producer of many of the precursor
chemicals used to illicitly produce fentanyl,
methamphetamine, and other deadly synthetic drugs. I
have raised this directly with State Chairman Xi
Jinping, and in 2025, at my request, the PRC
implemented new requirements for its companies to
obtain licenses before exporting designated precursor
chemicals to North America. However, criminals continue
to find ways around these controls through the use of
unregulated precursor chemicals. The PRC needs to take
more aggressive action to effectively reduce the flow
of these substances by scheduling additional chemical
precursors and substances requested by the United
States. This enhanced cooperation will enable timely
prosecution of the criminals responsible for supplying
drug traffickers with deadly precursor chemicals.
Other governments have taken measures to confront drug
trafficking and narcoterrorism. Dramatic political
changes in South America over the past year have
created historic openings for United States cooperation
with governments in the region. 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, including the elimination of Tren de
Aragua leader Nino Guerrero. Given the positive steps
taken under interim President Deley Rodriguez, I have
determined Venezuela should no longer be designated as
having failed demonstrably to fulfill its drug control
commitments. I expect to see continued, measurable
progress from the interim government in dismantling
narcoterrorist groups and stopping drug trafficking
through Venezuela to the United States.
After decades of inept socialist governments, the
United States welcomed the Bolivian people's democratic
choice in the 2025 elections and the opportunity to
open a new chapter in United States-Bolivia relations
under President Rodrigo Paz. Cooperation between
Bolivia and the United States has significantly
expanded over the last year, and I welcome the
resumption of law enforcement coordination between our
governments to target illicit drug production and
criminal networks. Bolivia's extradition of
narcoterrorist
[[Page 59689]]
Sebastian Marset to the United States in March 2026
highlighted our growing friendship and cooperation and
prevented one of our hemisphere's most notorious drug
traffickers from shipping more drugs to American
communities. However, the new government has not yet
had sufficient time to reduce coca cultivation that
increased under the previous government. Corruption in
Bolivia continues to facilitate drug trafficking and
impede investigations. If Bolivia can demonstrate
progress in reducing illicit drug production in the
coming year, and make substantive progress in tackling
the endemic corruption weakening Bolivia, I will
consider revisiting its status as having failed
demonstrably to uphold its counterdrug commitments.
The people of Colombia made the courageous choice to
elect Abelardo de la Espriella as President. He has
pledged to lead an aggressive campaign against coca
cultivation and cocaine production, which reached
record levels under the failed socialist policies of
his predecessor. Colombia is poised to resume its place
as our foremost security partner in the hemisphere, and
the country's military, police, prosecutors, and courts
now finally have a worthy champion in President de la
Espriella. If, as expected, Colombia makes progress on
aggressive coca eradication and dismantling its
narcoterrorist networks over the coming year, I will
consider lifting the country's ``failed demonstrably''
status, which remains in place solely due to the
incompetence and chaos produced by the previous far-
left government in office throughout the bulk of the
past year.
I welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the
Government of India's efforts to address illicit opium
poppy cultivation and bolster supply chain integrity. I
look forward to continued cooperation through the
United States-India Drug Policy Framework. In Peru, I
likewise welcome the commitment of new President Keiko
Fujimori to work with the United States and other
allies to destroy the criminals ailing Peru and reduce
cocaine flows bound for the United States. I also
applaud three of America's greatest allies in our
hemisphere--Argentina, Ecuador, and El Salvador--for
their leadership, resolve, and success in the fight
against narcoterrorism.
While many governments in the Western Hemisphere are
taking courageous action to reduce drug flows and
eradicate cartels, the Government of Brazil has failed
to confront the designated foreign terrorist
organizations Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando
Vermelho, which have transformed Brazil into a hub for
global cocaine flows. These Brazilian terrorist
organizations are a growing threat to peace and
security around the world, and Brazil's government
urgently must take aggressive measures to confront and
defeat them before they spread and grow.
Unsurprisingly, for a socialist dictatorship, the
illegitimate Ortego-Murillo regime in Nicaragua has
failed to take sufficient action against drug
trafficking and the complicity of regime actors in the
drug trade.
In Burma, the military regime has made little
discernible effort to crack down on its drug economy,
making the country the world's largest source of opium
poppy and one of the largest suppliers of
methamphetamine. Despite the Taliban's announced opium
poppy ban, Afghanistan continues to supply drug markets
across the world, likely funding Islamist terrorism.
For these reasons, I am once again designating Burma
and Afghanistan as having failed demonstrably to uphold
their drug control obligations given the serious
threats to United States interests and international
security.
[[Page 59690]]
You are authorized and directed to submit this
determination, with the accompanying memoranda of
justification, under section 706 of the FRAA, to the
Congress, and to publish this determination in the
Federal Register.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, September 11, 2026
Billing code 4710-10-P
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[FR Doc. 2026-19251
Filed 9-17-26; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4710-10-C
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