This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The U.S. State Department has blacklisted a prominent politician in North Macedonia for alleged corruption in the latest move by President Joe Biden’s administration to toughen its stance on global graft.
Ramiz Merko, the mayor of Struga, a popular tourist town located in southwestern North Macedonia, near the border with Albania, has been banned from entering the United States, the State Department said in a statement on June 20.
“While serving as Struga’s mayor, Merko misappropriated funds and interfered with judicial and other public processes, damaging the public’s faith in North Macedonia’s democratic institutions and officials,” the statement said.
The State Department did not give further details. RFE/RL could not immediately reach Merko for comment.
Merko’s wife, Shpresa, and his three adult children — Genc, Nazmije, and Drenushe — are also banned from traveling to the United States, the State Department said.
Merko, 66, an ethnic Albanian, first served two terms as mayor of Struga from 2005 to 2013 before entering parliament the following year.
He briefly served in 2017 as a minister overseeing foreign investment before winning the Struga mayoral race later that year. He won reelection in 2021.
Merko has been dogged by corruption allegations over the years. In early 2023, the Alliance for Albanians, a center-right political party, claimed Merko’s son owned a BMW 740d, a luxury car that costs about $100,000, and questioned how he could afford it.
Ethnic Albanians make up the majority of the population in Struga.
Merko is the latest foreign official to be targeted by the Biden administration for corruption. Upon taking office in 2021, Biden said his administration would take a tougher stance on graft as part of a larger policy to help strengthen democracy around the world.
