Trump administration designates Barrio 18 gang as foreign terrorist
organization
[September 24, 2025]
By MEGAN JANETSKY
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Trump administration Tuesday designated the
Barrio 18 gang as a foreign terrorist organization, joining other Latin
American criminal groups receiving the designation in recent months.
Barrio 18, largely based in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras,
originated in the United States as a street gang in Los Angeles created
by young Salvadoran immigrants as a way to protect themselves. When many
of their members were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, the gang
expanded and gained power across Central America, where it continues to
terrorize communities.
In recent years, the gang has been dealt a powerful blow by El Salvador
President Nayib Bukele, who has waged war on the country's gangs,
imprisoning more than 1% of El Salvador's population for alleged gang
ties with little evidence or access to due process. That has sharply
dropped crime rates in El Salvador, but also fueled accusations of mass
human rights abuses by the government.
In a statement on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the
designation “further demonstrates the Trump administration’s unwavering
commitment to dismantling cartels and gangs and ensuring the safety of
the American people.”
Bukele has long referred to members of the gang as “terrorists” and even
built a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. It was
that same lockup where 200 Venezuelan deportees were held earlier this
year as part of an agreement with Trump.
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A leader of the Barrio 18 gang stands handcuffed facing a wall after
his arrest in San Salvador, El Salvador, July 28, 2015. (AP
Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)
On Tuesday, Trump thanked Bukele, an ally, on the stage of the
United Nations General Assembly “for the successful and professional
job they have done in receiving and jailing so many criminals that
entered our country.”
Bukele's government did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
It's unclear what the designation would mean for law enforcement in
the region. The Trump administration has ruffled feathers in Latin
America as it has drastically expanded military actions by firing on
boats in the Caribbean that it alleges were carrying drugs to the
U.S. A number of people have been killed in those strikes.
Barrio 18 joins its rival, the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, the
Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and a number of Mexican cartels,
including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel,
in holding the foreign terrorist organization designation.
The designation has long been applied to groups that are more
political in nature. While the Latin American groups have sown
terror in the populations they lord over, they also are largely not
political in nature and instead focus their efforts on raking in
money through drug trafficking, extortion and other illegal
activities.
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