The Treasury Department adds the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras to its list of terrorist organizations

Washington officially designated the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), a decision that reinforces the Trump administration's strategy to combat major Mexican criminal groups using legal and financial tools previously reserved for terrorist organizations.

The measure was announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury, which updated the status of both organizations. With this designation, their assets and interests subject to U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. citizens and companies are prohibited from engaging in any type of commercial or financial relationship with these groups.

According to the Department of the Treasury, the reclassification strengthens the U.S. government's ability to identify, freeze, and dismantle the financing networks that sustain the operations of these criminal organizations.

Who are these groups?

The Juárez Cartel, also known as La Línea, Barrio Azteca, or the Carrillo Fuentes Organization, maintains its main area of influence in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. During the 1990s, it was one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking organizations under the leadership of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and since then, it has been embroiled in a prolonged territorial dispute with the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. authorities maintain that it currently maintains operational ties with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

For its part, Los Viagras, with a presence mainly in the state of Michoacán, emerged as an alleged self-defense group before establishing itself as an organization dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and other organized crime activities. According to U.S. authorities, the group has also resorted to using drones carrying explosives to attack both rival organizations and Mexican security forces.