No fewer than eight Latin American gangs and drug cartels have been given the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO ) label by State Department new director Marco Rubio, who is now just back from teaching CBS News ‘ Margaret Brennan a humiliating history lesson.
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The fresh FTOs include Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha, Cartel de Sinaloa, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana. Those organizations now find themselves in the same legal firm as as Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, and Boko Haram.  ,
So what does that mean in practice?
The little type is:” Nothing knows”. These Islamic criminal organizations are also operating. Al Qaeda joined the list in 1999, but it managed to survive two decades of war in Afghanistan and international gunfights, though in less good health.  ,
Even though the name contains” Terrorism,” an FTO title does not instantly make it legal to shoot or blow up FTO people, which seems to be what everyone is talking about on X right now.
Only hours before State announced the FTOs, Jesse Kelly warned,” I think the average American is GREATLY underestimating what it will get to “take out the organizations,” Kelly said. This is not going to get Sicario 2. This will be Vietnam”.
” No saying it’s bad to try. But don’t punch that off as some little thing”.
Really. It’s been a little over a decade since we last indulged in military operations in northern Mexico, and Gen. John Pershing’s 1916–1917 Punishing Mission against Pancho Villa didn’t accomplish much.
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John Cardillo replied with a bit more enthusiasm:
Yeah, but they’ve not gone off against an uncompromised attack.
Not that I’m saying that some helicopter strikes and air strikes will win this battle, but the Mexican war is even seriously harmed. As are the federales. Police in the position and the surrounding area are…
— John Cardillo ( @johncardillo ) February 18, 2025
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State and local police are the only organizations that support cartel. Although the cartels have a strong intellect network, they have always clashed with the US.  ,
It won’t be easy, but we also don’t underestimate their skills. Some of their military lack real training and are low-IQ thugs.
El Chapo was initially believed to be untouchable, but the US eventually turned his life around. When we did, we got him.
But going to actual war against the cartels could prove to be a game of whack-a-mole, with” Too much cash to be made, ]and ] always someone ready to step in”, as Buck Sexton noted. You’d hate to see this happen suddenly, as I’d put that medicine money frequently corrupts even those who are trying to combat it! to the U. S. war.  ,
The longer variation is that we can look at a variety of legitimate options as a result of the FTO designation.
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Initially, the financial sanctions, which make it illegal for Americans, American businesses, or NGOs to provide any type of material aid. And any property held in U. S. businesses are now frozen. For obvious reasons, drug going is a cash-intensive company now. By the time gang cash enters American banks, I assume it has been cleaned up more thoroughly than a Hillary Clinton email client.  ,
For those who support an FTO, there are also longer federal fugitive sanctions, some of which can be up to 20 years in prison.
Finally, there are immigration limits. Even those who are now these are subject to imprisonment, and members or associates of FTOs are prohibited from entering. That’s now in line with President Donald Trump’s effort to restore some semblance of order to our southern border and do large deportations of illegals, but, again, the FTO doesn’t seem to do something we aren’t currently doing.
Generally, then, what the FTO seems to indicate against the cartels is more legal scrutiny — and that’s no little thing. The most famous case is Al Capone, convicted of tax evasion but never of bootlegging, death, or any of his various recreational activities. Trump also serves as president, and if that’s what it takes, who is more than willing to bend wings in Mexico City to help those on their side of the border. I’d also take a good, hard look at where the medicine income goes in Mexico and censure correctly.  ,
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I’m not opposed, at least in theory, to using military pressure against the organizations. Nonetheless, even if military action didn’t prove to be as terrible and tough as Kelly feared, it might turn out to be even more tense than Sexton would have you believe.  ,
Therefore, it might be wiser to stay with the wider constitutional rights of the FTO names against the organizations and keep our powder clean for the Chinese.
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