Reuters-Aruba, Belize dropped from

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Subject: Reuters-Aruba, Belize dropped from US drug trafficking list 

Aruba, Belize dropped from US drug trafficking list
08:23 p.m Nov 10, 1999 Eastern
By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The United States has dropped the Caribbean
nations of Aruba and Belize from its annual list of major drug producing and
trafficking nations, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The decision spares the two countries from a ruling in the annual U.S. drug
certification system, which cuts off most U.S. aid to countries which fail
to cooperate in the war against drugs or which do not merit a special
presidential waiver.

The states still on the list are Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil,
Cambodia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti,
Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.

But this year the Clinton administration certified or gave a waiver to all
the countries except Afghanistan and Myanmar. Four other countries -
Nigeria, Paraguay, Cambodia and Haiti - were technically judged not to be
cooperating but penalties were waived because of U.S. national interests.

The State Department recommended that the White House remove Aruba from the
list because most of the cocaine and heroin passing through the island now
goes to Europe rather than to the United States, an official said.

``We noticed ... a change in trafficking pattern and in fairness to Aruba it
seemed to make sense to take them off,'' he said. The certification law
targets only countries from which the drug trade ``significantly affects''
the United States.

``With respect to Belize, what appeared to be a trafficking into Mexico and
then on into the United States appears to diminished to a negligible
amount,'' he added.

Some conservative members of Congress had tried to persuade the
Administration to put Cuba on the list of majors, on the basis of a Cuban
connection in a consignment of 7.2 tonnes of cocaine seized in the Colombian
port of Cartagena.

But, in a letter to the chairmen of three congressional committees on
Wednesday, President Bill Clinton said the Administration did not have the
evidence to do so.

``We have yet to receive any confirmation that this traffic (through Cuba)
carries significant quantities of cocaine or heroin to the United States,''
Clinton wrote.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said: ``Because the (7.2-tonne)
shipment never arrived in Cuba it was not included in the government
estimate of cocaine transiting Cuba.

``Because the preponderance of information available to us indicates that
the ultimate destination of the shipment was not the United States, this
shipment would have not figured in our calculations,'' he added. The State
Department believes the consignment was probably going to Spain.

If any of the 26 nations on the list are ``decertified'' when the government
makes its final decisions by March 1, they risk the suspension of U.S. aid
except for counter-narcotics work and U.S. opposition to lending from
multilateral institutions.

Under U.S. law, the administration must report to Congress each year on the
major countries where drugs are produced or trafficked, detailing what the
governments are doing to put an end to the illicit trade.