U.S. adds cartels to terrorist organization list

Feb. 20, 2025

The United States government added eight Latin American organized crime groups to its list of foreign terrorist organizations yesterday. Six of the organizations are Mexican cartels, including its two largest drug trafficking groups, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The other two are Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha known as MS-13. (Financial Times)

The immediate effects are unclear, but some analysts believe it could be the first step towards U.S. military strikes in Mexican territory. “The terrorist designation will give U.S. law enforcement enhanced powers to go after affiliates of cartels, including those selling them guns or laundering their money. It does not in itself authorize the U.S. military to strike at cartels inside Mexican territory. But there is increasing speculation that Trump could order the U.S. military to hit targets south of the border citing his presidential authority,” write Ioan Grillo and Katarina Szulc in CrashOut.

The designation “marks a shift in how the threat from certain organised crime groups is perceived by US agencies and augurs a greater role for the CIA and the US military,” reports the Guardian. Already the CIA has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico. (See Tuesday’s briefs.)

“I think Mexico is largely run by the cartels and that’s a sad thing to say, and if they wanted help with that, we’d give them help,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

The designation comes as Mexico angles to avoid 25 percent tariffs threatened by Trump, with drug trafficking and migration as major issues on the negotiating table.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that Mexico would not accept “extraterritorial actions,” by the U.S., but would cooperate with joint investigations. “We don’t accept the violation of our sovereignty.”

Sheinbaum said today she will propose constitutional reforms aimed at protecting Mexico’s sovereignty, a move that would constitutionally enshrine regulations passed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrado limiting to how foreign agents could operate in Mexico, limiting their independence and requiring that Mexican authorities be informed of their movements. (Associated Press)

Sheinbaum said her government was not consulted by the United States in its decision to include Mexican cartels on a list of global terrorist organizations. (Guardian)

More

• Designating organized crime groups as terrorist organizations “will do little to help attack these complex criminal networks,” reports InSight Crime.

Regional Relations

• Trump’s forceful approach to diplomacy in Latin America “has managed not only to embitter some of our closest historical allies but also to push open the door even wider for Beijing,” argues Eric Jacobstein in a New York Times op-ed. “In the long term, the administration’s bullying will almost certainly backfire, sending longtime allies looking to shore up relationships with other governments.”

Migration

• Little is known about what is going on in Guantanamo Bay with 175 men the U.S. deported to a military base there. “All have been described as Venezuelans who have been issued final deportation orders. But it is not known why these men in particular were sent there,” reports the New York Times.

• About 100 migrants, including eight children, deported from the U.S. to Panamá have been moved from a hotel where they were locked up to a jungle-side detention camp, reports the New York Times. “Conditions at the site are primitive, the detainees said. Diseases, including dengue are endemic to the region, and the government has denied access to journalists and aid organizations.”

• Police are searching for a Chinese woman who escaped from a Panama City hotel where she was being held following her deportation from the U.S., reports the Guardian.

Haiti

• “U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he would request that the United Nations assumes funding for the structural and logistical expenses of a multinational force in Haiti that is struggling to fight violent gangs,” reports the Associated Press.

Brazil

• Brazilians celebrated the strength of their country’s institutions after former President Jair Bolsonaro was charged with plotting a coup, reports the Guardian. (See yesterday’s post.)

Bolivia

• Residents of Bolivia’s tropical forests are still feeling the impact of last year’s massive fires, which now threaten their food supply, reports the Guardian.