U.S. designates Colombia's Clan de Golfo a terrorist organization
by Darryl Coote · UPIDec. 17 (UPI) -- The United States has designated Colombia's Clan de Golfo as a terrorist organization, the latest drug-trafficking cartel or gang to be blacklisted by the Trump administration during its war on drugs.
The State Department designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Tuesday.
"The United States will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation and stop the campaigns of violence and terror committed by international cartels and transnational criminal organizations," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
"We are committed to denying funding and resources to these terrorists."
Related
- Trump orders 'total and complete' naval blockade of Venezuela
- Trump to deliver primetime address from White House
- Trump adds five countries to travel ban over screening concerns
According to nonprofit think tank InSight Crime, Clan de Golfo is primarily involved in transnational drug trafficking and controls territories where it regulates or directs the coca paste production market and guards shipments on trafficking routes.
The Trump administration describes the group as a violent and powerful criminal organization with thousands of members. Its primary revenue source is cocaine trafficking.
It is the 10th gang or cartel the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization since February.
Trump has been blacklisting groups it accuses of trafficking drugs into the United States.
Since early September, the U.S. military has killed at least 95 people in 25 attacks on vessels in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are being piloted by the designated drug cartels.
However, the strikes are drawing mounting domestic and international condemnation and accusations of war crimes.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused Trump of murder over the death of a Colombian fisherman in an early September strike.
The designation comes amid a deepening row between Washington and Bogota.
Relations with the important U.S. ally have soured under the Trump administration, which in September added Colombia to its list of nations not cooperating in its drug war.
Trump has also accused Petro of being "an illegal drug leader," and in October, the State Department sanctioned the Colombian president.