President urges regional allies to formally recognize 24 U.S.-designated organizations as common threats to stability

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump called on members of the Shield of the Americas initiative Tuesday to formally designate narco-terrorist organizations as shared threats to regional stability and impose sweeping sanctions against 24 groups designated by the United States.

Speaking at a gathering of coalition leaders and foreign ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump argued that criminal organizations operating across the Western Hemisphere have grown into territorial and paramilitary powers that cannot be treated as ordinary drug-trafficking networks.

“For years, cartels have waged war on the people of this hemisphere,” Trump said. “Now we’re waging war on them.”

Trump asked every participating government to act against the organizations through its own legal and financial system, calling for “crushing sanctions” intended to isolate the groups, disrupt their access to money and deny their members safe haven.

The request accompanied the coalition’s first announced joint action under a broader regional strategy built around economic cooperation, collective security and national sovereignty. Participating governments said they would work toward coordinated sanctions and other measures against the 24 organizations.

The agreement signals an effort to move beyond intelligence sharing and law-enforcement cooperation by creating a more unified financial campaign against criminal networks. Its practical effect, however, will depend on the laws and enforcement decisions of each participating nation. A joint declaration does not automatically freeze assets or criminalize support for a designated organization in every country.

A More Aggressive Regional Strategy

The Shield of the Americas was launched as a U.S.-led coalition focused on drug cartels, transnational crime and security threats in the Western Hemisphere. The administration has increasingly described major trafficking organizations as narco-terrorists rather than conventional criminal enterprises.

The United States has designated a growing number of Latin American and Caribbean organizations as foreign terrorist organizations or specially designated global terrorists. Those classifications can expose members and supporters to financial restrictions, immigration consequences and criminal penalties under U.S. law.

The administration maintains that the designations provide authorities with stronger tools for freezing assets, pursuing financial networks and penalizing those who knowingly provide material support.

Trump told the assembled leaders that the organizations control territory, use military-style force and undermine the sovereignty of legitimate governments.

“These are violent terrorists, paramilitary forces in control of physical territory,” he said, adding that regional governments would have the backing of the United States as they confronted the groups.

Coalition Seeks Action Through the Rio Treaty

Shield of the Americas participants also announced plans to request a meeting of the Organization of American States under the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, commonly known as the Rio Treaty.

The move could provide a formal diplomatic framework for treating narco-terrorism as a collective security concern rather than a problem confined within national borders. Coalition members described the organizations as an immediate, shared danger to peace, security and economic prosperity throughout the hemisphere.

The initiative reflects the administration’s view that cartel violence, fentanyl trafficking, money laundering and territorial control are interconnected threats demanding a coordinated response.

Whether the coalition can maintain that unity will depend on how individual governments define terrorism, protect due process, and balance cooperation with the United States against their own domestic political and legal considerations.

For Trump, the message in New York was direct: governments across the Americas should no longer allow powerful criminal organizations to exploit the gaps between national laws.

“The job of every leader in this room is, above all, to protect the physical safety of your people,” he said.

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