Trump pushes Shield of the Americas coalition to target 24 cartel groups at UNGA meeting

United States President Donald Trump has urged members of the Shield of the Americas coalition to step up action against drug cartels during a meeting in New York City on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly. He told leaders and foreign ministers from the anti-cartel alliance that he wanted them to join the United States in targeting 24 criminal organisations and to treat them as common threats to stability. The meeting brought together governments already aligned on anti-cartel measures, with the coalition later issuing a joint statement on its next steps.

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Trump said he was asking all nations in the coalition to formally designate narco-terrorists as shared threats and to apply sanctions against the groups. He also pledged to use what he called unmatched military might against drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere. The coalition said it intended to impose asset freezes and visa restrictions on members and supporters of the organisations, and to pursue criminal charges where possible.

The statement did not indicate that the measures would take effect immediately. The list of targets includes Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, and Tren de Aragua, both of which have already been designated as terrorist organisations by Washington. It also includes major Mexican cartels, Colombia's National Liberation Army, Brazil's Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho, and Peru's Shining Path.

The coalition's 15 governments include countries such as Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador, while Colombia and Peru joined after Trump-aligned presidents took office in recent months. The move reflects a broader effort to coordinate legal and financial pressure across the region. The announcement matters because it links a security agenda at the UN General Assembly to a wider campaign against transnational organised crime in Latin America.

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The coalition's approach combines sanctions, visa restrictions and criminal charges, which can be used alongside domestic law enforcement but still depend on national legal systems. That makes the initiative politically significant even where immediate enforcement may be limited. It also shows how the United States is trying to build a regional framework around groups it views as cross-border threats.

The coalition is still relatively new, and the latest statement suggests it is moving from political alignment toward more formal measures. Reporting from Bogotá indicated that in Colombia, for example, a law would be needed to carry out some of the steps, and that the government had asked Congress to begin drafting one. That underlines the gap between a joint declaration and actual enforcement.

It also means the pace of implementation may differ sharply from one country to another. What remains unclear is how quickly each government will move to adopt the designations and whether all 24 groups will be treated in the same way across the coalition. It is also not yet clear which countries will face the most legal or political obstacles in applying sanctions and criminal charges.

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