The United States designates Clan de Golfo as a foreign terrorist group

The Trump administration has designated the Clan del Golfo a foreign terrorist organization, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday. The Clan del Golfo is Colombia’s largest drug trafficking group and is currently sitting at a negotiation table with the government of President Gustavo Petro, as part of the process to strike peace deals with the country’s guerrilla groups.

“Today, the Department of State is designating Clan del Golfo as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT),” Rubio said in a statement, a move that allows the U.S. to impose a wide range of economic sanctions on both the armed groups and individuals or entities associated with them.

Rubio described the group as “a violent and powerful criminal organization with thousands of members,” noting that its main source of income “is cocaine trafficking, which it uses to fund its violent activities.” Rubio also highlighted the group’s responsibility for terrorist attacks against public officials, law enforcement, military personnel, and civilians in Colombia.

The Trump administration has previously designated six Mexican cartels, as well as the transnational gangs Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha, and its rival Barrio 18, along with Ecuadorian groups Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organizations. This designation was also given to the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which Washington claims is led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The Clan del Golfo is involved in a wide range of illicit activities and has been known by several names over the years: it also calls itself the Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC). According to authorities, the group is responsible for nearly half of Colombia’s drug exports. Its reach extends to criminal control operations linked to extortion, illegal mining, and embezzling resources from local governments. The group is also involved in migrant trafficking through the dense Darién jungle between Colombia and Panama.

The organization emerged following the demobilization of paramilitary groups under Colombia’s then-president Álvaro Uribe (2002–2010). The group’s former top leader, Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias Otoniel — who had been a member of Colombia’s Popular Liberation Army (EPL) guerrilla and the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) — was captured in October 2021 and extradited to the United States. Then-president Iván Duque (2018–2022), Petro’s predecessor, hailed it as “the most important blow against drug trafficking this century,” claiming it marked the end of the group. He was wrong. Otoniel’s extradition did not weaken the Clan del Golfo, which is now led by Jobanis de Jesús Ávila, alias Chiquito Malo. On the contrary, the group has expanded since then and currently has around 9,000 armed members, according to the latest Colombian intelligence estimates.

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