The Trump administration just put three of Guatemala’s most powerful drug-trafficking clans on America’s terrorist list, accusing them of helping Mexico’s deadliest cartels move drugs toward U.S. streets.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that the administration is imposing terrorist designations on Los Lorenzanas, Los Huistas and Los Mendoza, three Guatemala-based groups the State Department says have “deep ties with Mexican cartels, helping to move and export illicit drugs to fund terrorism and criminal activity.”
Los Lorenzanas: now a Foreign Terrorist Organization
The State Department designated Los Lorenzanas as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The department called it “one of Guatemala’s most powerful drug trafficking clans,” responsible for numerous acts of violence against civilians, government officials and military forces in Guatemala.
The FTO designation takes effect once it is published in the Federal Register. A State Department notice is scheduled for publication on Monday, November 16.
“We will not stand by while these foreign terrorist organizations corrupt Guatemala’s institutions,” Rubio said in the State Department announcement.
Treasury hits the cartels’ logistics partners
At the same time, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Los Mendoza and Los Huistas as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for providing material support to the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Mexico’s two most powerful cartels. The Trump administration designated both of those cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in February 2025.
According to Treasury, the two Guatemalan groups control strategic trafficking corridors along Guatemala’s borders with Honduras and Mexico, handling the receipt, storage, protection and cross-border movement of narcotics bound for the United States.
- Los Mendoza, founded in the 1980s, is described by Treasury as one of Guatemala’s oldest and most powerful criminal organizations, a key transportation and logistics partner for the Sinaloa Cartel that is also involved in contract killings and money laundering.
- Los Huistas, active since the 1990s, is described as a critical link in the cocaine supply chain from South America through Mexico into the United States, with ties to both Sinaloa and CJNG and to local businessmen, law enforcement officials and politicians.
“Under President Trump’s America First agenda, the Treasury Department will continue to target the criminal networks that enable violent organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG to traffic drugs across our borders and threaten the safety of the American people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
What the designations do
Any property or interests the designated groups hold in the United States, or in the control of U.S. persons, is now blocked, and Americans are generally barred from doing business with them. Foreign banks that knowingly handle significant transactions for the groups could face secondary sanctions.
With Friday’s action, the administration has now designated 22 Latin American and Caribbean criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations, according to The Washington Post. The State Department said the move “further demonstrate[s] that the Trump Administration continues to deliver on its promises to dismantle cartels and narcoterrorist networks in our region.”
Reporting from the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Associated Press and The Washington Post.