The Trump administration designated three Guatemalan criminal organizations —Los Lorenzanas, Los Huistas, and Los Mendoza— as terrorist groups this Friday, in a coordinated effort between the State Department and the Department of the Treasury aimed at dismantling the drug trafficking networks supplying the U.S. market.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Department of State designates Los Lorenzanas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT), while the Treasury, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), sanctioned Los Mendoza and Los Huistas under the same category for providing material support to the Mexican cartels Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
"These three groups, based in Guatemala, maintain close ties with Mexican cartels and collaborate in the transport and export of illicit drugs to finance terrorism and criminal activity," Rubio stated in his declaration.
The Lorenzanas are described by Washington as one of the most powerful drug trafficking clans in Guatemala, responsible for acts of violence against civilians, government officials, and military forces in that country.
The Mendoza family, founded in the 1980s, operates as logistical intermediaries for the Sinaloa Cartel in the departments of San Marcos, Huehuetenango, and Petén, facilitating access to border crossings, clandestine airstrips, and protection networks. In addition to drug trafficking, the Treasury links them to contract killings, money laundering, and land theft.
The Huistas, active since the 1990s and based in northwestern Guatemala, had already been sanctioned by OFAC in March 2022. According to the statement from the Department of the Treasury, both organizations control strategic corridors at the borders of Guatemala with Honduras and Mexico, becoming essential logistical partners for Sinaloa and CJNG.
The Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent noted that the action "exposes the connections between Guatemalan criminal organizations with political influence and foreign Mexican terrorist organizations that facilitate the flow of deadly narcotics into the United States."
As an immediate consequence, all assets of the three organizations under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and must be reported to the OFAC. Any transactions with U.S. persons are prohibited, and those who provide material support face criminal liability.
Rubio warned that Washington will not remain "with its arms crossed while these foreign terrorist organizations corrupt the institutions of Guatemala," and reaffirmed the administration's commitment to "dismantling the cartels and narcoterrorist networks in our region."
The measure is part of a systematic policy to expand the list of terrorist groups in Latin America. The Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG were designated as FTO and SDGT in February 2025, and by September 2026, the U.S. list had already included 21 organizations from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, and Brazil.
With the inclusion of Los Lorenzanas, Los Huistas, and Los Mendoza, Guatemala becomes the new focal point of this regional anti-drug policy, which has been steadily expanding southward across the continent since its inception in January 2025.
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