Trump Admin Designates 2 Ecuadoran Gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in another move against cartels and drug traffickers, on Sept. 4 said the Trump administration is designating two Ecuadorean gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.

In a notice released on Sept. 4, the State Department said it would publish its declaration in the Federal Register on Sept. 5 to label the Los Choneros and Los Lobos gangs as global terrorist organizations.

The declaration, Rubio said in the notice, was based on a review of administration records and in consultation with the Treasury and Justice departments.

“I have concluded that there is a sufficient factual basis to find that the relevant circumstances exist” to declare the groups as terrorist organizations, he said, although the notice did not provide additional details.

Los Choneros is also known as The Choneros, Aguilas, and Fatales, according to the notice, while Los Lobos is also known as The Lobos and Los Lobos Drug Trafficking Organization.

Designating the gangs as terrorist organizations allows the federal government to use official means to limit the two groups’ access to financial resources and block their travel.

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has labeled a handful of criminal gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the major Mexican drug cartels.

Two Haitian gangs and the Houthis group that controls much of Yemen were also designated as global terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

The U.S. military carried out a strike this week on a boat that departed Venezuela that Trump administration officials said belonged to Tren de Aragua and was trafficking drugs. The strike killed at least 11 people on the vessel. President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Rubio this week have also suggested that more military actions targeting Tren de Aragua and Venezuela could come in the future.

The announcement comes as Rubio visited Ecuador on Sept. 4, following a trip to Mexico the day before. The secretary said the U.S. strike on the boat was needed because merely intercepting vessels hadn’t deterred drug trafficking into the United States.

“Interdiction doesn’t work,” Rubio said on Sept. 3 during a press conference in Mexico, according to a State Department transcript, referring to the strikes.

Losing a small amount of drugs via U.S. seizures is factored into the Mexican cartels’ economics, he said.

“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them. So they were designated as what they are—they are narco-terrorist organizations,” Rubio said.

As for the possibility of another U.S. strike, Rubio said that “it’ll happen again.”

“[Trump is] going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations,” he said. “This one was operating in international waters, headed towards the United States to flood our country with poison, and under President Trump, those days are over.”

The previous day, Trump told reporters in the White House that Venezuela’s government has “been a very bad actor” in recent years and that his administration has “to protect” the United States.

While in Ecuador, Rubio signaled that he wants to strengthen the U.S. relationship with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa because the two countries are “aligned as key partners on ending illegal immigration and [combating] transnational crime and terrorism.”