The nature of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) in the Americas is undergoing a profound and dangerous evolution. Groups like the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel of the Suns have expanded beyond traditional criminal activities, leveraging high-level government complicity and advanced technology to exert state-like control and create new security challenges. This transformation has prompted a new and decisive legal response: Countries are now reclassifying these criminal groups as terrorist organizations to combat them more effectively.
The reclassification of these groups as terrorist organizations represents a direct response to the evolving nature of the threat. This designation enhances legal and operational capabilities for governments. It enables the implementation of expanded financial sanctions, the freezing of assets, and the streamlined sharing of intelligence and cooperative efforts internationally.
Ultimately, this approach aims to more effectively disrupt these criminal organizations and their capacity to operate.
A regional legal offensive
A growing number of countries in the hemisphere are joining this legal offensive. In a decisive security policy move that resonates throughout South America, the Argentine government declared months apart the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel of the Suns as terrorist groups, through joint resolutions. The Tren de Aragua is a highly violent Venezuelan prison gang that has expanded its criminal operations across the Americas, engaging in crimes like extortion, drug and human trafficking, and murder. The Cartel of the Suns, named for the sun insignias on the epaulettes of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials, is a criminal network of corrupt Venezuelan regime and military figures who facilitate drug trafficking and other illicit activities.
In late August, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said via X that the decision to declare the Cartel of the Suns a terrorist and narco-criminal organization ensures that the organization “will not be able to carry out their criminal activities” in Argentina or elsewhere. “Maduro and his entourage are narco-terrorists,” Bullrich said.
The United States has also taken a strong stance. in February, the Department of State announced the designation of the Tren de Aragua a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In late July, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
This move is part of a broader, regional trend. Countries across the region have applied the same designation to the Venezuelan criminal networks. In addition to the United States and Argentina, countries like Ecuador, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago have also formally classified the Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, Ecuador and Paraguay have taken similar measures against the Cartel of the Suns, with Peru’s Congress following suit, citing the “serious risk that its operations pose to the country’s democratic stability.” The Dominican Republic has also condemned the group, and Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino stated his willingness to consider a similar designation. In Colombia, the Senate has formally voted to recognize the Cartel as an international criminal organization.
Internationally, the European Parliament has also recognized the threat. In September, it called on the European Union to include the Cartel of the Suns on its list of terrorist organizations, noting that “drug cartels and transnational crime structures […] support terrorism by sustaining armed groups inside and outside Colombia to supply weapons, financial flows, and safe heavens across the border, worsening regional instability and undermining Colombia’s sovereignty and democracy,” Infobae reported.
Case Study: The Cartel of the Suns
The Cartel of the Suns perfectly illustrates why this new legal framework is needed. As Argentine defense and security consultant José Javier Díaz explained to Diálogo: “The Cartel of the Suns is a dangerous Venezuelan criminal organization that has been growing in territorial influence and economic, financial, and technological capabilities.”
He added that “it relies heavily on the complicity of Venezuela’s top political and military authorities to expand its illegal business […] to other nations in the Americas and the rest of the world.” This nexus between a criminal organization and a state actor has made the Cartel of the Suns a unique and destabilizing force, requiring a response that goes beyond traditional law enforcement.
Díaz also warned that “the cartel operates with the complicity of Venezuelan political officials and high-ranking military officers, who have been corrupted and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for their inaction and assistance in carrying out various crimes involving drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, and contract killings.”
What’s next?
The reclassification of these groups as terrorist organizations marks a new chapter in the fight against organized crime in the Americas. As Díaz concluded, “International cooperation in the fight against this criminal organization is essential through collaboration between countries to share information and coordinate key operations to achieve effectiveness in the fight against organized crime.”
He added that collaboration with allies such as the United States is vital, as it “allows us to share information, access new technologies and investigative methodologies, and participate in various types of operations to ensure regional security, so as not to allow criminal organizations to continue expanding and endangering peace in the Western Hemisphere.”
