US Designates Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones Gang as Terrorist Group
Left 50%
Center 0%
Right 50%
1 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in Quito that the United States had designated Ecuador's Los Tiguerones gang as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, bringing the Trump administration's list of designated foreign terrorist groups in Latin America and the Caribbean to 21. Rubio made the announcement while meeting Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa during a three-nation tour that also included Colombia and Peru. The State Department linked the Ecuador-based gang to narcotics trafficking and to attacks on civilians, law enforcement officers, and journalists, including a 2024 armed takeover of the TC Televisión network during a live broadcast, an attack that had prompted Noboa to declare a state of "internal armed conflict." Rubio said U.S. and Ecuadorian elite forces were working jointly "in a way that has no precedent" and that he would seek $45 million in additional congressional funding toward dismantling such groups.
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Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage never explains that a foreign-terrorist label was built for political militants, not for gangs that move drugs for profit. That silence changes what the Ecuador announcement is. Right-leaning coverage states the designation was previously reserved for groups such as ISIS rather than crime organizations. Rubio's warning that these are not common criminals appears in the Guardian, yet that report never flags that the statute itself is now aimed at a new kind of target.
Left-leaning coverage foregrounds Rubio's courtship of conservative presidents and a regional shift to the right. Right-leaning coverage opens on the Latin American and Caribbean terror list growing to 21. One story is an alliance tour. The other is a lengthening roster.
What evidence put Los Tiguerones over the legal line from criminal gang to terrorist organization?
Bottom line
The Guardian never mentions that the statute used on Los Tiguerones was once kept for ISIS. That is the part that turns a gang listing into a new kind of terror designation.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- The FTO label was previously reserved for groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida that use violence for political ambitions, not for financially motivated crime organizations
- Strikes against boats have killed at least 227 people whom the Trump administration has called drug traffickers without providing evidence
- Los Tiguerones was designated both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
- Rubio said he would seek $45 million in additional funding from Congress toward dismantling these terrorist groups
- The designation strategy served as a pretext for the U.S. capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro
- Elite forces from both countries were working jointly day-to-day in a way that has no precedent, Rubio told reporters
The Left View
The Guardian frames the move as part of the Trump administration's expanding campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America, conducted while Rubio courts right-wing allies as security partners in a "Shield of the Americas" coalition. It underscores that Rubio hailed Ecuador as the administration's most "aggressive" partner in a military campaign that includes "controversial strikes against boats that have killed at least 227 people whom the Trump administration has called drug traffickers without providing evidence." The paper ties the action to "a significant political shift to the right in Latin America," citing Rubio's outreach to newly elected conservative leaders and his description of former Colombian president Gustavo Petro's leadership as "unnatural." It quotes Rubio insisting the gang is not "an ordinary mafia" or "common criminals" but "terrorists who, in many cases, possess weapons and equipment resembling the national armies of certain countries."
The Right View
Fox News presents the designation as the administration delivering on promises to dismantle cartels and narcoterrorist networks, quoting Rubio that it will "use all available tools to protect our nation by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narcoterrorists." It emphasizes that designations "expose and isolate entities and individuals, denying them access to the U.S. financial system and the resources they need to carry out attacks." The outlet notes the FTO label "was previously reserved for terrorist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida that use violence for political ambitions and not for financially motivated crime organizations," but that the administration wants to increase pressure on those rings and anyone assisting them. Fox reports the strategy, begun in February 2025, "served as a pretext" for the U.S. capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and for deadly attacks on boats allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking, while also flagging a contradiction in Trump's approach: his pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking.
Our Take (balanced)
The left's strongest argument is that the designation functions as an instrument of a militarized campaign aligned with hardline governments, with its best evidence the Guardian's report that Rubio hailed Ecuador as the administration's most "aggressive" partner in boat strikes that killed at least 227 people "without providing evidence" they were drug traffickers. The right's strongest argument is that terrorist designations are practical tools to isolate violent drug gangs and cut their finances, with its best evidence Rubio's claim that they deny entities access to the U.S. financial system and disrupt "the revenue streams funding violent narcoterrorists." The central unresolved tension is whether applying a legal category historically reserved for politically motivated groups such as ISIS to financially motivated crime organizations is a legitimate adaptation to narcoterrorism or a redefinition that lowers the public-evidence bar for lethal force and forges security partnerships along ideological lines.
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