US adds 96 groups to terrorist list, including two Brazilian cartels

The United States Department of State announced that 96 organizations are now designated as foreign terrorist entities, covering activity in 51 countries. The list comprises jihadist groups such as the Islamic State and Al‑Qaeda, political‑military movements including Hamas, Hezbollah, the PKK and dissident IRA factions, and major Latin American criminal organisations like Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels. Two Brazilian groups, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV), were newly added, expanding U.S. legal and financial tools that criminalise material support and require banks to block related transactions.

Regional breakdown shows Asia holding the largest share with 50 groups operating in 19 countries, led by Pakistan with 15 entities, followed by Iraq (10) and Afghanistan and Palestine (7 each). Africa lists 18 groups across 16 nations, heavily concentrated in the Sahel. The Americas have 21 organisations active in 11 countries, a surge largely under the Trump administration, which classified 16 of those groups. Among the new designations is Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles, alleged to be linked to the regime’s elite, a claim the U.S. Justice Department has contested.

The expanded list tightens U.S. counter‑terror financing measures, making it a crime to provide material support and obligating financial institutions to report and freeze assets linked to these groups.