USA What You Need to Know About the Criminal Groups the US Just Labeled ‘Terrorists’

The US government has officially designated several Latin American organized crime groups as terrorist organizations, but the move will do little to help attack these complex criminal networks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced February 20 that the Venezuelan mega-gang Tren de Aragua, the MS13 street gang, and the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG), Gulf Cartel, Northeast Cartel, Familia Michoacana, and United Cartels in Mexico would be declared “foreign terrorist organizations.”

The official designation stemmed from an executive order US President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office announcing his intention to make this decision.

“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” Trump said at that time.

The new designations are likely to put further strain on US-Mexico relations, which are already tense due to Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Mexican goods and his statements claiming Mexico’s government is controlled by criminal interests. Experts consulted by InSight Crime cautioned that this measure is far from a cure-all for the threats posed by transnational criminal networks and may actually complicate joint efforts to fight them.

More: https://insightcrime.org/news/organized-crime-groups-thus-labeled-terrorist-organizations/