Fifteen Shield of the Americas Governments Endorse Joint Statement Targeting 24 Designated Terrorist Organizations With Asset Freezes and Visa Bans

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, fifteen governments (the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, per InSight Crime) endorsed a joint statement pledging asset freezes, visa restrictions and legal sanctions against anyone “knowingly providing material support” to 24 organizations. InSight Crime says all 24 were already US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations; it names MS-13, Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, the Gaitanistas, and Brazil’s PCC and Comando Vermelho. Brazil and Mexico are not members.

Function, not label: the instrument extends one government’s terrorist designations into partner jurisdictions’ sanctions and visa regimes. It deploys no troops. The same Shield membership’s troop-related announcements (Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Aug. 12) were made by Hegseth; Guatemala’s government denied any agreement authorizing foreign military operations. The State Department text (state.gov, “Joint Statement by Members of the Shield of the Americas”) returned 403 to the researcher and was not read; the signatory list is InSight Crime’s and other sources give different counts. See cascade-research note shield-of-the-americas-membership-operations-stress-and-noem-envoy-record-2026-03-to-10.