US Designates Colombia’s Clan del Golfo as Terrorist Organization

The United States has officially designated Colombia’s largest criminal group, the Clan del Golfo, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), marking a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s war on transnational organized crime. The designation, announced Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, places the powerful paramilitary cartel in the same legal category as groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, unlocking the U.S. government’s most aggressive sanctioning and interdiction tools.
In a statement released from Washington, Secretary Rubio described the Clan del Golfo (also known as the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AGC) as a “hybrid threat” that has evolved beyond simple drug trafficking into a destabilizing paramilitary force. “They are not just criminals; they are terrorists who murder police officers, displace thousands of civilians, and poison our streets with cocaine,” Rubio declared. The group was also concurrently designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.
The move comes under the authority of Executive Order 14157, signed by President Trump in January 2025, which broadened the criteria for designating cartels as terrorist organizations. U.S. officials cited the Clan’s brutal “Pistol Plan”—a campaign of targeted assassinations against Colombian police—and its iron-fisted control over the Darién Gap migrant route as key factors in the decision. The designation makes it a federal crime for any U.S. person to provide “material support” to the group and freezes any assets its members may have within U.S. jurisdiction.
For Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the designation complicates his faltering “Total Peace” policy, which sought to negotiate demobilization deals with armed groups rather than pursue military confrontation. The Clan del Golfo, which commands an estimated 9,000 armed combatants and controls nearly a third of Colombia’s cocaine exports, had been a primary target for these negotiations. However, the U.S. terrorist label effectively criminalizes any dialogue that could be construed as offering concessions or legitimacy to the group, potentially forcing the Colombian government back into a full-scale military offensive.
The designation also signals a green light for intensified U.S. military support. Under FTO rules, U.S. intelligence agencies can share real-time targeting data with Colombian forces more freely, and Department of Justice prosecutors can seek longer prison sentences—up to life without parole—for extradited members.
As the “terrorist” label goes into effect, operations in Colombia’s northern departments are expected to intensify. The Clan del Golfo has yet to issue an official response, but security analysts warn of potential retaliatory violence against civilians and infrastructure in the group’s strongholds of Antioquia and Chocó.