WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush expressed deep worries in a report out Tuesday about Afghanistan's war on illegal drugs and added Bolivia to a narcotics blacklist that already included Myanmar and Venezuela.
"Corruption and illegal drugs in Afghanistan threaten to undermine all aspects of the country's efforts to build a sustainable economic infrastructure and functioning democracy," he warned.
In annual findings on the global illegal drug trade, Bush for the first time said Bolivia had "failed demonstrably" to meet its obligations to battle narcotics under international accords and US laws governing overseas aid.
But he waived possible restrictions on assistance for "bilateral programs" in Bolivia -- pegged at roughly 100 million dollars per year -- and "democratic institutions" in Venezuela as "vital" to US interests.
Bush's comments came in a memorandum for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dated Monday but released at the White House on Tuesday, identifying 20 major drug transit or drug producing countries.
Bush put Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Myanmar, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela on the list.
In Caracas, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez blasted the list.
"The United States can say whatever it likes," Chavez said. "That is pure garbage. It is not true.
"They can release whatever list they like. What do we care about this list? They can shove it in their pocket, they are no moral authority to make any lists," Chavez stressed, insisting his government was firm in the anti-drug fight.
The US president noted that appearing on the list does not necessarily mean governments are not trying to stem the flow of illegal drugs or are not cooperating with Washington.
Instead, it can be "the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to transit or be produced despite the concerned government's most assiduous enforcement measures," he said.
Bush, who has ordered more US troops to quell a deadly resurgence of Islamist fighters in Afghanistan, said the Kabul government of President Hamid Karzai had "made some progress" in fighting poppy cultivation.
"However, drug trafficking remains a serious threat to the future of Afghanistan, contributing to widespread public corruption, damaging legitimate economic growth, and fueling violence and insurgency," he said.
Bush cited "difficult security conditions" as well as drug-related corruption -- "one of the most intransigent problems in the country" -- as major obstacles to eradicating poppies, the raw material for opium and heroin.
Bush said Canada, the biggest US trading partner, had become a "significant producer" of highly potent marijuana and club-drug "ecstasy" but expressed optimism about the country's anti-drug strategy.
Bush praised India's "strong track record" of controlling its legal opium production and distribution but said it "cannot let up" to ensure that legal product do not get diverted to illegal markets.
The US president expressed concerns about drug trafficking in Central America, citing operations by cartels feeling tougher counter-narcotics regimes in places like Mexico and Colombia.
"Often unimpeded, traffickers use long Central American coastlines for illegal maritime drug shipments. Even though there have been noteworthy seizures, a high proportion of drugs transiting Central America are not detected or seized," he said.
Bush also cited the need for international help for West African countries that have become "key transit hubs" for South American cocaine and lack the resources to battle the narcotics traffickers who undermine their stability.
At the US State Department, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement David Johnson noted that Bolivia was making its appearance on the blacklist for the first time under Bush.
"This was not a hasty decision," he told reporters. "Bolivia remains a major narcotics-producing country and its official policies and actions have caused a significant deterioration in its cooperation with the United States."
He denied the findings were retaliation for Bolivia's expulsion of the US ambassador there.
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