The United States government has designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), according to a public notice from the Department of State.
The designations of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the United Cartels, the Northeast Cartel, the Gulf Cartel and La Nueva Familia Michoacana as FTOs will take effect on Thursday once the notice is published in the United States Federal Register.
🚨 The U.S. has officially declared the following as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the United Cartels, the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, and the Michoacán Family. pic.twitter.com/cgcw9juyEl
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 19, 2025
The notice was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb. 6 and is currently available for public inspection ahead of its publication in the Federal Register on Thursday.
Rubio said that, in consultation with the U.S. attorney general and secretary of the treasury, he concluded that the six Mexican cartels as well as Tren de Aragua, an organization that originated in Venezuela, and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a gang founded by Salvadoran immigrants in the United States, meet the criteria to be designated as FTOs.
Under section 219 of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act, the criteria include that “the organization must engage in terrorist activity” and “the organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States.”
Rubio endorsed the notice 2 1/2 weeks after United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 that directed the secretary of state to make recommendations on the designation of specific cartels and criminal organizations as FTOs within 14 days.
Trump’s executive order referred to Mexican cartels broadly and said it was “the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures.”
Asked on Jan. 20 whether he would consider “ordering U.S. special forces into Mexico” to “take out” cartels, the U.S. president said it “could happen.”
“Stranger things have happened,” Trump said.
U.S. officials provided information about which cartels would be designated as FTOs to The New York Times last week.
Once the designations of the eight criminal organizations listed in the State Department public notice take effect on Thursday, they will join groups such as ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas and Boko Haram on the United States’ list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.
What will the terrorist designations allow the US government to do?
The designation of the six Mexican cartels (read about them here), Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as FTOs will allow the U.S. government to “impose broad economic sanctions on the groups and on people or entities linked to them,” The New York Times reported.
Reuters reported that “designating a group as a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO, is aimed at disrupting its finances through sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on its members and associates.”
The scope of the new designations “was not immediately clear,” the news agency added.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has already sought to disrupt the finances of various Mexican criminal organizations with sanctions issued by its Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Trump considered designating Mexican cartels as FTOs during his first term as president, but ultimately didn’t go ahead with the idea.
Reuters reported that some top U.S. officials at the time “privately expressed misgivings that the measure could damage relations with Mexico and hinder the fight against drug trafficking.”
“Another concern was that the designations could make it easier for migrants to win U.S. asylum by claiming they were fleeing terrorism,” Reuters added.
Sheinbaum on terrorist designations and drones
President Claudia Sheinbaum said last week that if the United States designated Mexican organized crime groups as FTOs, Mexico would have to broaden its existing lawsuit in the U.S. against gun manufacturers and distributors because they could be considered “accomplices” to terrorism, given that cartels use the firearms they make and sell.
She has expressed opposition to the United States’ designation of Mexican cartels as FTOs on numerous occasions, saying that such a move would not help combat problems such as drug trafficking and illegal migration.
Sheinbaum has stressed the need for collaboration to overcome shared security challenges rather than “unilateral decisions.”
On Wednesday, she said that CIA drone flights over Mexico to collect information on cartels and their illegal activities — as reported by CNN and The New York Times on Tuesday — were part of Mexico’s security collaboration with the United States.
“In the first place, there is nothing illegal [taking place]. What there is is collaboration and cooperation,” Sheinbaum said, adding that U.S. drone flights in Mexico have been taking place for “many years.”
She said that all U.S. drone flights in Mexico have occurred after Mexico requested them in order to obtain information to respond to “security conditions.”
“… So there is nothing illegal and it’s part of collaboration and coordination,” Sheinbaum said.
With reports from Reuters
