The Trump administration has expanded its list of Latin American and Caribbean groups designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” to 21, adding an Ecuadorian criminal group this week. The announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, promoting Washington’s strategy against drug trafficking in the region.
The terrorist label was traditionally reserved for politically motivated groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, not profit-driven criminal networks. But since February 2025, the designation has become a key tool for the Trump administration to pressure cartels and anyone suspected of aiding them. It has also been cited as justification for the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and for more than 200 deaths in strikes on alleged “narco-terrorist” boats. Countries including Guatemala, Argentina, and Ecuador have followed Washington’s lead with their own crackdowns.
Mexico tops the list with eight designated groups, including the powerful Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, both major fentanyl suppliers to the US market. Mexico’s government faces intense pressure from Washington to avoid unilateral American action, especially following corruption allegations against officials in Sinaloa state.
Critics note contradictions in the approach: former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of drug trafficking and accused of protecting the Sinaloa Cartel, was pardoned by Trump last year and has since returned home.
Read the full report, including details on all 21 designated groups, at Telemundo.
Source: La lista de organizaciones extranjeras designadas como terroristas por EE.UU. en América aumenta a 21 (telemundo.com).
Image: WeatherWriter, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).