“No radical change”: Trump admin describes the cartels and criminal organizations as terrorists

(Photo with the kind permission of NPR) “President Trump signed an executive regulation on cartels in January”

Nate Coady

Plug

According to an executive regulation issued by President Donald Trump in January, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio announced on Thursday, February 20, that the Foreign Ministry would award eight criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOS) and specially named global terrorists (SDGTS).

The main motive for the name is to send a political message that the administration according to Angélica Durán-Martínez, an extraordinary professor of political science at Umass Lowell, is against criminal organizations. However, she says that the term does “not necessarily [reflect] More complex realities on site. ”

A formal terrorist label enables a wider range of measures that the United States can take in combating the gangs mentioned in the name and criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatruucha (MS-13) that are in a way in a capacity present in the country. As soon as an FTO name is present, the selection of the people you can calculate for the connection with terrorism is greater. Adding the label can make much more people put into account. And the United States can use things such as financial sanctions, freezing assets, things and a wider range of people, ”says Durán-Martínez.

“Terrorism”, although a complicated term defined, is usually not associated with groups such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13. They are street bands that work in a smaller scale compared to other cartels mentioned in the name specified in the name such as the Sinaloa cartel or the Jalalco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), let alone terrorist organizations.

“What are these groups?” She continues that dealing with these organizations can be carried out with a normal law enforcement procedure. In other words, the fight against gang presence in the country can be done without a fto name.

Even with the name, the approach of pursuing large criminal organizations and their leaders has proven to be unreliable. “For twelve years,” says Durán-Martínez, “Mexiko captured criminals and arrested them. And the drug trafficking has not gone anywhere; organizations have gotten more fragmented, and this recent round of captures will not change.” If the goal of the administration is to impair organizations of drug traffick Stop, according to Durán-Martínez, will not prove to be successful.

Similar to the durability of criminal organizations, migrants across the southern border, which could also be affected if the USA decides to increase its workforce. Durán-Martínez believes that the inevitability of immigration will take a possible increase in military presence at the border, but is laid underground to avoid participation in the US criminal trap.

Another potential effect is the chance of corruption. “The more they militarize, they also create incentives for state agents to become corrupt because they have more power,” she says. To help them cross the border, migrants can look for the same criminal organizations that justify an increased military presence. Situations in which this type of relationship occurs are not yet unknown before the FTO name of cartels and criminal organizations is by the Trump government.

“What I see more than anything is a situation without a radical change,” is ultimately what Durán-Martínez says about the name because it “does nothing to tackle other parts that have started the network, addiction itself, or the financial networks or even the flow of weapons … which may be catching and processing more sentences or processing more sentences.” But as the country already knows from the years of the drug ban: that will do nothing.

What the term for international relationships with Mexico means will be determined in the coming days. The Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that regardless of the next steps for the Trump government, Mexico should not hinder the sovereignty. In view of the willingness of the administration to take unprecedented measures, however, there is uncertainty about what the executive department will do in the persecution of cartels and crime organizations. Durán-Martínez says: “I will not exclude anything with this administration at this point.”