Executive Order 12978
BLOCKING ASSETS AND PROHIBITING TRANSACTIONS WITH SIGNIFICANT NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKERS
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601
et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President
of the United States of America, find that the actions of significant foreign narcotics
traffickers centered in Colombia, and the unparalleled violence, corruption, and harm that
they cause in the United States and abroad, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat
to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and hereby
declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
Section 1. Except to the extent provided in section 203(b) of IEEPA (50
U.S.C. 1702(b)) and in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued
pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or
permit granted prior to the effective date, I hereby order blocked all property and
interests in property that are or hereafter come within the United States, or that are or
hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, of: (a) the
foreign persons listed in the Annex to this order; (b) foreign persons determined by the
Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of
State: (i) to play a significant role in international narcotics trafficking centered in
Colombia; or (ii) materially to assist in, or provide financial or technological support
for or goods or services in support of, the narcotics trafficking activities of persons
designated in or pursuant to this order; and (c) persons determined by the Secretary of
the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to be
owned or controlled by, or to act for or on behalf of, persons designated in or pursuant
to this order.
Sec. 2. Further, except to the extent provided in section 203(b) of IEEPA
and in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this
order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted
prior to the effective date, I hereby prohibit the following: (a) any transaction or
dealing by United States persons or within the United States in property or interests in
property of the persons designated in or pursuant to this order; (b) any transaction by
any United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, or has the
purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate, any of the prohibitions set forth
in this order.
Sec. 3. For the purposes of this order: (a) the term ``person'' means an
individual or entity; (b) the term ``entity'' means a partnership, association,
corporation, or other organization, group or subgroup; (c) the term ``United States
person'' means any United States citizen or national, permanent resident alien, entity
organized under the laws of the United States (including foreign branches), or any person
in the United States: (d) the term ``foreign person'' means any citizen or national of a
foreign state (including any such individual who is also a citizen or national of the
United States) or any entity not organized solely under the laws of the United States or
existing solely in the United States, but does not include a foreign state; and (e) the
term ``narcotics trafficking'' means any activity undertaken illicitly to cultivate,
produce, manufacture, distribute, sell, finance or transport, or otherwise assist, abet,
conspire, or collude with others in illicit activities relating to, narcotic drugs,
including, but not limited to, cocaine.
Sec. 4. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney
General and the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including
the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the
President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out this order. The Secretary of the
Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the
United States Government. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed
to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out this order.
Sec. 5. Nothing contained in this order shall create any right or benefit,
substantive or procedural, enforceable by any party against the United States, its
agencies or instrumentalities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
Sec. 6. (a) This order is effective at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on
October 22, 1995. (b) This order shall be transmitted to the Congress and published in the
Federal Register.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 21, 1995. |