LatinNews Daily - 28 September 2026

Region: On 22 September the members of the US-led Shield of the Americas security initiative issued a “joint statement on defending hemispheric security” which announced various actions as part of its three pillars: economic, security, and multilateral coordination. The signatories of the statement which, as well as the US, included Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad & Tobago, announced as a first action that they would collectively impose sanctions against 24 criminal groups that US President Donald Trump’s administration has designated as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs). These are: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 (M-18), the two main gangs active in Central America; Venezuela’s Cártel de Los Soles and Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organisation which originated in Venezuela; Mexico’s Cárteles Unidos, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel del Noreste, Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Cártel de Sinaloa, Los Viagras, Juárez Cartel (La Línea), and Cártel del Golfo; Colombia’s Clan del Golfo, Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), and dissident groups of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) including the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) and Segunda Marquetalia, “or aliases, affiliates, and successor groups”; Haiti’s Gran Grif and Viv Ansanm; Ecuador’s Los Lobos, Los Choneros, Chone Killers, and Los Tiguerones; Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV); and Peru’s Sendero Luminoso.