{"id":17448,"date":"2025-02-19T22:37:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T22:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=17448"},"modified":"2025-02-19T22:37:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T22:37:50","slug":"donald-trump-designates-mexican-drug-cartels-as-terrorist-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=17448","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump designates Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=ecf6cb9c-36d8-4ad4-9778-b13ef7a20a11&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The Trump administration has declared that eight Latin American organised crime groups are terrorist organisations, putting pressure on Mexico\u2019s government and raising the prospect of US military intervention in the region to dismantle them.<\/p>\n<p>Six of the groups on the list are based in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/mexico\" data-trackable=\"link\">Mexico<\/a>, including its two largest drug trafficking outfits, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. <\/p>\n<p>The other two are Venezuela\u2019s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador\u2019s Mara Salvatrucha known as MS-13, according to a public notice published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>US President Donald Trump has promised to \u201cwage war\u201d on drug cartels, particularly over their role supplying the deadly opioid fentanyl, which is a leading cause of death among young people in the US. He has accused the Mexican government of an \u201cintolerable alliance\u201d with the groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Mexico is largely run by the cartels and that\u2019s a sad thing to say, and if they wanted help with that, we\u2019d give them help,\u201d Trump said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Mexico\u2019s government has previously rejected this characterisation and blames the US for providing the groups with high-calibre weapons and for failing to investigate money laundering from drug sales on American soil.<\/p>\n<p>It has also long pushed back against the inclusion of cartels involved in drug trafficking and extortion on the foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) list alongside militant groups such as Islamic State and Hizbollah, saying the two require different solutions. <\/p>\n<p>In recent years, the cartels have deepened their territorial control in Mexico, keeping murders and disappearances near record highs.<\/p>\n<p>The designation comes as Mexico is engaged in tense discussions with the Trump administration across security and migration to try to avoid a 25 per cent tariff on most of its exports.<\/p>\n<p>Leftwing President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that the US could call groups what it liked but that she would defend Mexico\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this decree is about extraterritorial actions, we don\u2019t accept that, we think that it\u2019s true we have to advance in joint investigations,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t accept the violation of our sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"ad53b687-f344-4240-b669-5bc249821553\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ad53b687-f344-4240-b669-5bc249821553\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2346\/1320\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The decision comes amid growing reports of greater use of US reconnaissance drones over Mexico to gather intelligence on the groups. Experts say it also raises the possibility of US drone strikes on Mexican territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis declaration fuses two efforts that were born separately; the war on terror and the war on drugs,\u201d said V\u00edctor Ram\u00edrez, a Mexican national security expert and professor at the Panamerican University. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou take drugs out of the public security sphere and put it firmly in the logic of military threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Representatives from Mexico\u2019s financial sector said it would also be affected. Though bigger banks already have to comply with strict global anti-money laundering rules, the US sanctions would be worse for any rule- breaking, including asset freezes and criminal penalties. <\/p>\n<p>Smaller and mid-sized banks, particularly ones that rely on a third-party bank for transactions with the US, could be more affected, they said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the banks will have to be even more careful in complying with the law,\u201d said Carlos Serrano, chief economist at BBVA Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ecf6cb9c-36d8-4ad4-9778-b13ef7a20a11\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}