The White House has formalized a historic shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy. In a document signed this Tuesday (5), President Donald Trump placed drug cartels and transnational gangs at the top of the list of threats to American national security, surpassing organizations such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The new strategy was publicly presented this Wednesday (6) by Sebastian Gorka, responsible for the counterterrorism area of the National Security Council. According to him, the government’s priority is now combating criminal structures linked to international drug trafficking, especially those operating in the Americas.
The text establishes a complete reorganization of US anti-terror doctrine. The threats are now divided into three blocks: narcoterrorism and transnational factions, Islamist terrorism and domestic extremist groups. Examples cited by the White House include anarchist organizations, anti-fascist movements and groups accused by the government of promoting political violence.
The reformulation takes place on the eve of the meeting between Trump and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, scheduled for Thursday (7), in Washington. The advancement of drug trafficking on the continent and the debate on Latin American factions should be part of the conversations between the two governments.
The change also consolidates a policy that had been intensified since Trump’s return to the White House. In recent months, the US has expanded maritime operations against vessels linked to trafficking and tightened its discourse on hemispheric security. In January of this year, the American government used the argument of combating drug trafficking to justify the offensive that overthrew Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
In the White House’s assessment, cartels today represent a threat comparable to that of traditional terrorist groups. The document states that, during a 12-month period under the Joe Biden administration, the number of Americans killed by drugs associated with trafficking exceeded the total number of US military personnel killed in wars since 1945.
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The new directive maintains the fight against global jihadism as an operational priority. The document explicitly cites actions against Al Qaeda and remnants of the Islamic State, but makes it clear that the main axis of American security policy now involves combating international drug trafficking.
