The Trump administration’s push to designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations is not just a strategic necessity; it is an urgent national security imperative, a regional stability requirement, and a moral duty. This designation must not only target the cartels themselves but also extend to their entire ecosystem: money laundering networks, corrupt politicians, and bureaucrats who protect them. These organizations are no longer just criminal syndicates; they are transnational threats using terror tactics to expand power, destabilize and control governments, and erode democracy across the Western Hemisphere. The designation must be implemented immediately, and its kinetic components, whatever they may entail, must be operationalized without hesitation.
For far too long, the United States has fought cartels as if they were merely organized crime groups, a failed approach that has allowed them to metastasize into full-blown insurgencies. These organizations wield military-grade weaponry, control vast territories, and operate with a level of efficiency, rivaling the most dangerous terrorist groups in history. They rule through terror, beheadings, mass killings, and public executions designed to instill fear and submission. But now, they have gone further: they bankroll and install their puppets in the highest levels of Latin American governments, creating narco-states hostile to US interests.
The cocaine trade remains the cartels’ primary financial engine, fueling an empire of corruption, political destabilization, and mass violence.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cocaine production and trafficking in the region surged by over 30 percent under the Biden administration. This explosion in cartel power was not accidental. It was enabled. US embassies across Latin America and even the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) have, through omission or commission, allowed the cartels and their political allies to flourish unchecked. This failure demands urgent accountability.
If President Trump is serious about restoring American dominance in the region and dismantling this anti-American axis of crime and corruption, he must order a full investigation and performance review of all US ambassadors, deputy chiefs of mission (DCMs), and foreign service bureaucrats who have served in Latin America over the past two decades. Those whose actions or inaction have enabled cartel expansion, political subversion, and regional instability must be exposed, removed, and, where appropriate, prosecuted. The immediate removal of partisan, politicized diplomats and a return to an America First, and only America First foreign policy is not just necessary; it is long overdue.
Beyond drugs, the cartels have turned human trafficking into both a revenue stream and a weapon of terror. Women and children are not just smuggled—they are enslaved, brutalized, and sold in a multi-billion-dollar industry that funds cartel war machines. The weaponization of human lives is an atrocity that cannot be tolerated. Taking down the cartels is not only a strategic necessity—it is a moral imperative.
These criminal organizations do not operate in isolation. They are part of an unholy alliance between drug cartels, the radical Latin American left, and China. This coalition, built on drug money, political corruption, and foreign influence, exists to weaken the United States from within and without. China provides the precursor chemicals for fentanyl, enables money laundering networks, and expands its influence through economic warfare disguised as infrastructure investments. The cartels and their leftist allies protect and facilitate this arrangement, ensuring that America’s enemies have a foothold in our hemisphere.
This designation must not be symbolic. It must come with action. The US must choke off cartel revenue, dismantle its political networks, and execute direct actions against high-value targets as necessary, regardless of political and/or social status. America has waged war on terror and drugs before; it must now do the same against the cartels. The security of our nation, the stability of our hemisphere, and the principles of human decency demand nothing less.
The Trump administration’s push to designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations is not just a strategic necessity; it is an urgent national security imperative, a regional stability requirement, and a moral duty. This designation must not only target the cartels themselves but also extend to their entire ecosystem: money laundering networks, corrupt politicians, and bureaucrats who protect them. These organizations are no longer just criminal syndicates; they are transnational threats using terror tactics to expand power, destabilize and control governments, and erode democracy across the Western Hemisphere. The designation must be implemented immediately, and its kinetic components, whatever they may entail, must be operationalized without hesitation.
For far too long, the United States has fought cartels as if they were merely organized crime groups, a failed approach that has allowed them to metastasize into full-blown insurgencies. These organizations wield military-grade weaponry, control vast territories, and operate with a level of efficiency, rivaling the most dangerous terrorist groups in history. They rule through terror, beheadings, mass killings, and public executions designed to instill fear and submission. But now, they have gone further: they bankroll and install their puppets in the highest levels of Latin American governments, creating narco-states hostile to US interests.
The cocaine trade remains the cartels’ primary financial engine, fueling an empire of corruption, political destabilization, and mass violence.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cocaine production and trafficking in the region surged by over 30 percent under the Biden administration. This explosion in cartel power was not accidental. It was enabled. US embassies across Latin America and even the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) have, through omission or commission, allowed the cartels and their political allies to flourish unchecked. This failure demands urgent accountability.
If President Trump is serious about restoring American dominance in the region and dismantling this anti-American axis of crime and corruption, he must order a full investigation and performance review of all US ambassadors, deputy chiefs of mission (DCMs), and foreign service bureaucrats who have served in Latin America over the past two decades. Those whose actions or inaction have enabled cartel expansion, political subversion, and regional instability must be exposed, removed, and, where appropriate, prosecuted. The immediate removal of partisan, politicized diplomats and a return to an America First, and only America First foreign policy is not just necessary; it is long overdue.
Beyond drugs, the cartels have turned human trafficking into both a revenue stream and a weapon of terror. Women and children are not just smuggled—they are enslaved, brutalized, and sold in a multi-billion-dollar industry that funds cartel war machines. The weaponization of human lives is an atrocity that cannot be tolerated. Taking down the cartels is not only a strategic necessity—it is a moral imperative.
These criminal organizations do not operate in isolation. They are part of an unholy alliance between drug cartels, the radical Latin American left, and China. This coalition, built on drug money, political corruption, and foreign influence, exists to weaken the United States from within and without. China provides the precursor chemicals for fentanyl, enables money laundering networks, and expands its influence through economic warfare disguised as infrastructure investments. The cartels and their leftist allies protect and facilitate this arrangement, ensuring that America’s enemies have a foothold in our hemisphere.
This designation must not be symbolic. It must come with action. The US must choke off cartel revenue, dismantle its political networks, and execute direct actions against high-value targets as necessary, regardless of political and/or social status. America has waged war on terror and drugs before; it must now do the same against the cartels. The security of our nation, the stability of our hemisphere, and the principles of human decency demand nothing less.
