State Dept Poised to Designate Latin-America Gangs Tren de Aragua, MS13 and the Sinaloa Cartel as Foreign Terrorist Organizations
A notice in the federal register [SEE HERE] scheduled to be published on February 20, 2025, outlines how the U.S. State Department under Marco Rubio intends to designate Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and MS13 as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
In combination with enhanced actions by the Dept of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol and the U.S. Treasury Dept., the designation opens up a lot of authority for the U.S. government to target not only the gangs, but any entity or enterprise who supports their activity; including the government of Mexico.
WASHINGTON – […] This designation allows the U.S. to impose financial sanctions on these groups and people connected to them, and cooperate with allies to cull cartels. It also allows the U.S. to declare members of these groups as “inadmissible” to the country and ineligible for immigration benefits.
It’s not immediately clear how far these sanctions might go — or who they may target. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The move follows President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to crack down on cartels. On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order that established a pipeline for cartels and other international groups that “constitute[d] a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime” to be labeled as global terrorists.
These moves could expose countries like El Salvador — which the U.S. aims to collaborate with on countermigration, but have also been accused of having dealings with gangs — to terror charges and restrict their cooperation with the U.S. (read more)
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