Trump orders designation of cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Cartels and other criminal organizations will be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO’s), according to an Executive Order signed by Trump on his first day in office. The order also declares a National Emergency to deal with those threats.

The order creates a process by which certain international cartels and other organizations will be designated as either FTO’s or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, with the goal of “total elimination” of these organizations in the U.S.

The designation is intended to affect Mexican cartels, but also includes criminal organizations like Tren de Aragua (TdA) which originated in Venezuela, and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, which originated in Los Angeles from Central American immigrants.

“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,” said the order. “The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.”

“In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society,” the order stated. “The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”

The order, which is accompanied by a declaration of a National Emergency, is set to be implemented within the next 14 days by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence.

Since the initiation of Mexico’s war on drugs in December 2006 under President Felipe Calderón, the country has experienced nearly two decades of war between cartels and criminal organizations. As of December 2024, the cumulative death toll from the Mexican drug war is estimated to be approximately 450,000 individuals, with an additional 100,000 reported as disappeared.