The United States has labelled the Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif gangs in Haiti “foreign terrorist organisations”, a move that follows a trend under President Donald Trump of issuing terrorist designations against criminal groups in Latin America.
As part of Friday’s announcement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that the two gangs have spread violence and chaos in Haiti, where armed groups exert substantial control over much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“The age of impunity for those supporting violence in Haiti is over,” Rubio said in a news statement.
“Haitian gangs, including the Viv Ansanm coalition and Gran Grif, are the primary source of instability and violence in Haiti. They are a direct threat to US national security interests in our region.”
The Trump administration has projected a hard line against criminal groups in Latin America, often connecting those efforts to domestic priorities like stemming irregular migration and drug trafficking.
In February, the US also designated eight drug-trafficking and criminal groups as “terrorist organisations”, including gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Tren de Aragua and several Mexican drug cartels.
While such groups carry out acts of violence and intimidation, experts have typically differentiated between them and traditional “terrorist” organisations that typically have explicit political goals.
The designation of “foreign terrorist organisation” makes any member of a given group inadmissible for entry into the US.
It also bars offering “material support or resources” to the group — an element of legal jeopardy that could inadvertently penalise individuals in areas where gangs are deeply embedded in the local economy and government.
But Trump and his allies have sought to up the ante against criminal organisations and cartels, blaming them for the flow of undocumented migration and illicit drug-trafficking into the US.
In the past, he and other Republican leaders have even suggested the US could carry out military strikes on countries such as Mexico to address the threat of gangs, causing alarm about possible violations of territorial sovereignty.
While US-Mexico relations remain strong, critics fear aggressive moves — including the use of the terrorism designation for Mexican cartels — could undermine cooperation as the two countries address organised crime.
In Haiti, the threat of gangs is widespread. For instance, the Viv Ansanm coalition, whose name translates to “Live Together”, is thought to control as much as 85 percent of Port-au-Prince, preventing commercial flights from arriving and restricting necessary supplies like food and medicine.
With many Haitian civilians facing hunger, displacement and violence, critics fear the new designation could make it even harder to send necessary supplies to the country, given the need to negotiate with the gangs.
“The first consequences will be on the humanitarian and international cooperation, which is basically the only thing preventing the people in Haiti from starving,” Romain Le Cour, an expert with Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told The Associated Press.
Experts point out that the gangs often charge tolls for movement in and around their territory. The “terrorist” designation could make payment a criminal offence in the US.
“It could function as a de facto embargo,” said Jake Johnston, international research director at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research.
“The gangs exercise tremendous control over the commerce of the country,” he added. “Doing any kind of business with Haiti or in Haiti is going to carry much greater risk.”
Gang control over Haiti has increased in recent years, particularly after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. His death led to a power vacuum, and no federal election has been held since, eroding public trust in state institutions.
The gangs have exploited that vacuum to exert control. More than one million people have been internally displaced by the resulting violence, and the United Nations estimates that 5.7 million residents — nearly half the country — do not have enough food to eat.
Kenya has led a UN-backed international security mission tasked with bolstering local police as they combat the gangs. But that mission has been heavily reliant on US support, some of which Trump has frozen since taking office.
That task force has struggled to make an impact thus far, and in February, one of the Kenyan police officers was shot and killed as part of the mission, its first known death.
Sceptics have also questioned the efficacy of the international group, given the long and disastrous history of foreign interventions in Haiti, including by the US.
Trump has also attempted to scrap programmes like Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and humanitarian parole that allow Haitians to live legally in the US. An estimated 520,694 Haitians are protected under TPS alone. But under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security plans to fold the TPS programme for Haitians by August.