The United States has removed Venezuela from its list of countries deemed to have "failed demonstrably" to combat drug trafficking, the first time Caracas has come off that designation since 2005, according to a presidential determination published by the State Department on September 16.

Colombia, by contrast, remains on the list for a second consecutive year, alongside Afghanistan, Bolivia and Myanmar among many other nations.

President Donald Trump attributed Venezuela's removal to the fallout from his administration's capture of Nicolás Maduro in January, when US forces ousted and arrested the former president along with his wife, Cilia Flores; both now await trial in New York on drug-trafficking and weapons charges. Cooperation with Caracas' interim government, led by Maduro's former vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, was "paying dividends," Trump said, pointing to a June strike that killed Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero. "I have determined Venezuela should no longer be designated as having failed demonstrably to fulfil its drug control commitments," he said in a statement.

The rehabilitation of Rodríguez marks a striking reversal. As recently as 2022, the US Drug Enforcement Administration labelled her a "priority target" — a designation reserved for suspects believed to have a significant impact on the drug trade — with an intelligence file dating to 2018 that alleged links ranging from trafficking to gold smuggling, according to records reviewed by AP. The Treasury Department removed Rodríguez from its Specially Designated Nationals sanctions list in April, months after she was sworn in as acting president. Ties deepened further on August 28, when Trump announced a deal granting the United States a stake in Venezuela's oil reserves.

The January operation that ousted Maduro also left dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban military and security personnel dead, along with at least two civilians, according to various media tallies; legal experts have widely condemned the raid as a breach of international law, a criticism Rodríguez herself initially echoed. That friction has since eased. She no longer mentions Maduro in her speeches, and she has pursued a broadly conciliatory approach toward Washington since taking office, earning repeated praise from the US president.

Trump said Colombia, now under right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella, was "poised to resume its place as our foremost security partner in the hemisphere" and could see its own designation lifted if it shows measurable progress on coca eradication and dismantling narco-terrorist networks over the coming year. His predecessor, leftist Gustavo Petro, had held Colombia's decertified status since September 2025 over what Washington called a rollback of forced manual eradication; Petro, who traded barbs with Trump on multiple occasions, left office on August 7.

This comes as Washington is actively promoting the "Shield of the Americas," a US-led anti-cartel alliance that has drawn Peru as its newest member, and continues a campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that has killed at least 215 people since last year, actions that United Nations bodies and rights organisations have called extrajudicial.

“Dramatic political changes in South America over the past year have created historic openings for United States cooperation with governments in the region,” Trump stated.

Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia are now led by figures aligned with Trump, who has pointed to them as evidence that what he calls his "Donroe Doctrine" of Western Hemisphere dominance is working. That leaves only Brazil and Mexico as the region's last major countries under leftist governments.

Washington maintains that assistance to Colombia, Bolivia and Myanmar remains "vital" to US national interests despite their continued "failed demonstrably" status, a clause typically paired with a waiver that preserves financial aid.

The complete list of "major illicit drug transit or production countries" includes Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

Venezuela remains on the broader list of countries flagged for drug-related shortcomings, even though it was split off from the "demonstrably failed" category. That means it is no longer designated non-compliant, yet Washington still regards it as a drug transit or production country.