The U.S. Designated More Terrorist Groups in 2025 than in the Last Ten Years Combined
The U.S. Designated More Terrorist Groups in 2025 than in the Last Ten Years Combined
Cartel groups "want to coexist with whatever the political regime is in power," said AS/COA's José Enrique Arrioja to Task & Purpose.
This year alone, the U.S. government designated 19 groups as terrorists, a massive spike compared to the last decade. Several are criminal organizations allegedly involved in trafficking drugs.
Of those designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the State Department this year, eight are drug cartels, such as Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cartel del Golfo, Carteles Unidos, Tren de Aragua, and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). [...]
Since 2001, the majority of U.S. designations have been related to Global War on Terror operations and included nearly three dozen Islamic extremist groups. Those have ranged from more-established groups in the Middle East like al Qaida and the Islamic State, to offshoots like Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) and others operating in parts of Africa like al-Shabaab and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM.
Then in February, the State Department designated eight drug cartels as terrorist organizations with plans for a ninth group announced by Rubio.
Jose Enrique Arrioja, senior director of policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said the designated groups are all criminal organizations using gangs for “expanding, organized, illegal activities — not only in drug trafficking but extortion, kidnapping as an industry.”
In 1997, the U.S. designated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia as foreign terrorists, but those groups were “more proactively engaged in a political change in Colombia,” Arrioja said. The modus operandi of the latest drug cartels cited by the U.S. is more about wielding power over local politicians in Latin American cities or states — most of the time through extortion, he said...
