United States authorities have decided this Friday to classify as a terrorist organization three well-known drug trafficking gangs based in Guatemala and already previously sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury: Los Lorenzana, Los Mendoza and Los Huistas.
The Department of State has made public this decision against these three criminal networks, which it accuses of maintaining "deep ties" with Mexican cartels. As it details in an official communiqué, the three groups "collaborate in the transportation and export of illicit drugs to finance terrorism and criminal activity."
Los Lorenzana, defined by Washington as "one of the most powerful drug-trafficking clans in Guatemala," have been included in the category of "foreign terrorist organization" and also as a "specially designated global terrorist," a designation that extends equally to Los Huistas and Los Mendoza.
"Los Lorenzana (...) is responsible for numerous acts of violence against civilians, Government officials and military forces in Guatemala," the U.S. diplomacy has pointed out, noting that this gang had been added hours earlier to the Treasury's 'blacklist.'
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury has applied the same designation to Los Mendoza, a family clan that amassed its wealth through smuggling and drug trafficking from the municipality of Morales, until it consolidated as one of the drug-trafficking organizations with the greatest influence in Central America.
The name of Los Lorenzana comes from its founder, Waldemar Lorenzana Lima, who died in 2021 while serving a sentence in a prison in the United States. The structure, still directed by family members, is dedicated to facilitating the transfer of cocaine from South American and Central American countries to Mexico and the United States.