The United States on Tuesday designated Colombia’s largest armed drug-trafficking group, the “Clan del Golfo,” as a terrorist organization.
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has classified several gangs and cartels based in Latin America as terrorist organizations, as his administration seeks to broaden the legal tools available to crack down on these groups.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Clan del Golfo is a violent and powerful criminal organization with thousands of members.” a statement Posted on the State Department website.
“The group’s primary source of income is cocaine trafficking, which it uses to finance its violent activities. The Clan del Golfo is responsible for terrorist attacks against public officials, law enforcement and military personnel, and civilians in Colombia,” the statement said.
What does the designation mean?
The designation of Clan del Golfo as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)” and “Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)” means that any level of US-based support for the group amounts to a federal crime based on terrorism charges. Any US financial institution would be required to block funds linked to the group.
The terrorist designation also serves as a warning to foreign or regional governments and financial institutions that choose to continue supporting or doing business with the group.
Rubio said, “The United States will continue to use all available tools to defend our nation and stop the campaigns of violence and terror carried out by international cartels and transnational criminal organizations.”
Trump’s pressure on Colombia’s President Petro
The US National Security Strategy released earlier this month indicated that the Trump administration’s foreign policy priority is on the Western Hemisphere, and countering national security threats emerging from Latin America.
This has included deploying naval assets to the Gulf of Mexico near the Venezuelan coast and controversially carrying out strikes against small boats against alleged drug smugglers. The Trump administration is also putting immense pressure on Venezuela’s powerful President Nicolas Maduro.
Although Colombia is considered a strong US ally in Latin America, Trump and his leftist Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro are not on good terms.
Petro is a well-known critic of the US “war on drugs” and the Trump administration’s hard-line migration policy. He has also characterized US attacks in the Caribbean as “extrajudicial executions” that are “in violation of international law”.
The Trump administration has said that the Petro government is not doing enough to combat drug trafficking.
In October, the Trump administration sanctioned Petro, claiming that he “allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity.”
US Secretary of State Rubio has publicly called Petro “crazy”, while Trump has also cut millions of dollars in aid to Colombia.
What is Clan del Golfo?
Also called the Gatanist Army of Colombia, the Clan del Golfo emerged from a right-wing paramilitary coalition around 2006.
The group’s main source of income is drug trafficking, and Colombian military intelligence estimates that it ships hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US and Europe each year.
The group also fights other gangs, such as the Venezuela-based syndicate “Tren de Aragua”, including over control of areas in the capital Bogotá.
Since Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, he has sought to negotiate with Colombia’s various armed groups and end decades of violence.
Clan del Golfo is currently in talks with Petro’s government, which signed an agreement following talks in Doha aimed at the eventual disarmament of the group and the establishment of peace in the areas under its control.
The group has in recent years tried to style itself more as a political movement, like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which would offer it different terms in peace talks. However, the group is not widely considered to have a concrete political objective, and focuses primarily on criminal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and extortion.
And the US terrorist designation could complicate Petro’s negotiating efforts, as Washington would now regard any negotiations between Petro’s government and Clan del Golfo as negotiations with a terrorist group.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery