Buenos Aires, Oct 23 (AP) Argentina has designated five Latin American criminal and guerrilla groups, including Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, as terrorist organisations, aligning itself with the security policies of the United States, a close ally.
The decision by President Javier Milei’s government, published on Thursday in the official gazette, comes a month after US President Donald Trump’s administration expanded its list of Latin American criminal groups designated as foreign terrorist organisations to 21.
Argentina’s new designations include Mexico’s Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel and Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, both of which are also on the US list.
The measure also targets Colombia’s National Liberation Army, or ELN, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army, or FARC-EP, a name used by dissident factions of the former FARC rebel group that rejected a peace agreement signed a decade ago and remain active. Both have previously been designated as foreign terrorist organisations by the United States.
In a statement released on Wednesday night, Milei’s office said the five groups were linked to drug trafficking and organised crime.
The government described the Sinaloa cartel as a transnational organisation involved in drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom. It characterised the ELN and FARC-EP as far-left insurgent groups rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology and armed revolution.
It also described Los Tiguerones, which it linked to contract killings and drug trafficking, as one of the region’s most violent criminal groups.
The announcement comes two weeks after Milei’s government said the United States had established a regional unit of the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs in Argentina. Washington approved USD 13.35 million to strengthen efforts against drug trafficking and organised crime.
Argentina has previously designated several other groups as terrorist organisations, including Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns, Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel and three branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. Those groups were added to a national registry of individuals and entities linked to terrorism and its financing.
Other countries in the region have adopted security policies similar to those of the United States. Ecuador, for example, designated 22 organised crime groups as terrorist organisations in January 2024 after declaring an internal armed conflict.
In October 2025, Guatemala’s Congress amended several laws to designate the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs as transnational criminal and terrorist organisations. The measure allows longer prison sentences for gang members.
The Trump administration had previously designated Barrio 18 as a terrorist organisation, months after taking similar action against Mara Salvatrucha.
(PTI News)
