Rubio designates two more Mexican Cartels as foreign terrorist organizations

The terrorist designations honor the Trump administration's commitment to dismantle narco-terrorist Cartels that have unlawfully flooded the US with illicit narcotics, resulting in the deaths of American citizens and violence in communities. President Donald Trump has compared the Mexican Cartels to ISIS, calling for them to be eradicated.

"Today, I designated two additional Mexican cartels, the Juarez Cartel and Los Viagras, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists," Rubio wrote on X. "Under President Trump's leadership, we will never stop fighting against violent narco-terrorists from flooding our nation with deadly drugs."

https://twitter.com/SecRubio/status/2077841278264561780?s=20

In 2019, hitmen from the Juarez Cartel's dominant faction, La Linea, carried out a massacre in Sonora, Mexico, resulting in the killings of nine US citizens, including three adults and six children, the department said.

The Juarez Cartel and Los Viagras join numerous other Mexican Cartels that have been designated as FTOs, such as Cartel de Sinaloa, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

Secretary Rubio previously stated that Mexican Cartels "have committed or have attempted to commit, pose a significant risk of committing, or have participated in training to commit acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security."

President Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 designating Mexican Cartels and other foreign criminal enterprises, such as the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs, as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.

The president wrote that the Cartels "have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere" and have "flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs." Trump said the Cartels control nearly all of the illegal traffic across the southern border "through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force."

"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. Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States," the president said in the executive order.

The Mexican Cartels, which have a history of committing severe acts of violence against migrants, including innocent children and extorting them, authorize the majority of migrants who unlawfully enter the United States through the southern border, according to reports.

The State Department said in a press release that the agency "will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation by keeping poison off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narco-terrorists."

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