Canada to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist groups, implications for mining companies and human rights defenders
Video still: On February 4, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations would give police “more powers to… track the money, follow the assets and disrupt the activities of cartels.”
CBC reports: “U.S. President Donald Trump dropped his plan to levy tariffs on Canada for at least 30 days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a series of commitments on Monday [February 3] to improve border security.”
That article continues that one of those commitments is that “[Trudeau] promised to list Mexican cartels, the top purveyors of fentanyl and other drugs in Canada and the U.S., as terrorists under Canadian law.”
Mexico News Daily adds: “Trudeau’s action against drug gangs follows in the footsteps of the U.S. president who, on January 20 [the day of his inauguration], signed an Executive Order designating cartels and other organizations as ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations and specially designated global terrorists.’”
The Canadian Press has noted: “The [executive] order did not list any Mexican cartels by name but said Cabinet secretaries would recommend groups for designation as terrorist organizations in the next 14 days.”
As such, those cartels could be named soon by the U.S. and would presumably inform the designation of cartels by Canadian officials.
The Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels
In July 2024, CNN explained: “The Sinaloa cartel … is one of the oldest and most established drug trafficking groups in Mexico.” Following the arrest of two of Sinaloa cartel leaders in Texas, CNN further noted: “[Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute] warned that other Mexican cartels stand ready to take their place, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).”
Implications for human rights defenders
Disappearances have soared with militarization
In 2018, PBI-UK commented: “PBI has provided protection to at-risk human rights defenders in the country since 2000, an experience that has shown us that in the federal states where a security strategy based on militarisation has been implemented, attacks against activists have increased significantly.”
Now, The Guardian reports: “While [Trump’s] designation of cartels as FTOs [foreign terrorist organizations] itself will not authorise US military action in Mexico, some fear it would be the first step towards it. Trump has already suggested bombing drug labs, and has reportedly discussed sending special forces to kill cartel leaders.”
The Intercept has cautioned: “The current iteration of disappearances in Mexico is linked to former President Felipe Calderón’s 2006 deployment of thousands of troops into the streets in a supposed war on drug trafficking organizations.” NBC adds: “The majority of disappearances have been reported since 2006.”
Searchers disappeared for searching for the disappeared
In April 2022, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances said: “Organized crime has become a central perpetrator of disappearance in Mexico, with varying degrees of participation, acquiescence or omission by public servants.”
The United Nations statement on the Committee’s findings further noted: “The Committee was concerned about the situation of human rights defenders, some of whom have been disappeared because of their participation in searches and fighting against disappearances. It was also concerned at the disappearances of more than 30 journalists between 2003 and 2021, none of them has been located.”
The National Guard implicated in human rights violations
In April 2022, the CSO Space for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC), the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, the Saltillo Migrant Shelter and more than 20 other organizations signed this letter that states: “[The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances] has argued that the public security approach adopted by the Mexican State three decades ago has been focused on militarization to combat crime, which has been insufficient and inadequate.”
Their letter further notes that in the context of militarization: “Human rights organizations have documented the involvement of the military, including the militarized National Guard, in cases of torture, repression, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, sexual violence among other human rights violations.”
Cartels accessing US guns and military-grade weapons
A Reuters investigation in December 2023 detailed how the Jalisco New Generation Cartel “bought hundreds of guns from more than a dozen U.S. states, specializing in semi-automatic .50 caliber rifles and FN SCAR assault rifles designed for U.S. special forces, internal ATF reports obtained by Reuters allege.”
Then in January 2024, the Associated Press reported: “Mexico’s army is [also] finding belt-fed machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States.”
At that time, Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said: “The [Mexican] Defense Department has warned the United States about weapons entering Mexico that are for the exclusive use of the U.S. army. It is very urgent that an investigation into this be carried out [on how the cartels are acquiring these weapons].”
Illegally mined gold sold to US and European companies
Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, recently wrote in The New York Times: “Latin America’s criminal conglomerates … have laundered hundreds of millions of dollars through banks and sold billions in illegally mined gold to U.S. and European metal companies [and] source weapons from ‘straw purchasers’, who buy guns on behalf of criminal groups. This is the ecosystem that sustains the cartels: a relatively free criminal marketplace.”
Cartels charge mining companies fees, target mine opponents
In April 2015, The Washington, DC-based think tank InSight Crime reported: “The head of a Canadian mining company has admitted to interacting with Mexico criminal groups in order to facilitate mining operations, illustrating a common regional dynamic that is rarely discussed publicly. …Rob McEwen – the president and chairman of Toronto-based McEwen Mining Inc. – said his company has a ‘good relationship’ with drug cartels in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, reported The Associated Press.”
More recently, in December 2024, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project highlighted: “The [New York Stock Exchange-listed Ternium S.A. Las Encinas] mine, locals allege, offers more money-making opportunities for local cartels, which often charge fees to operate on their turf… Those who oppose the mines can become targets for the cartels. In recent years, more than half a dozen people who had challenged Ternium’s mines have been kidnapped, murdered, or disappeared.”
On January 28, 2025, PBI-Mexico amplified the concerns expressed by the Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria DH) about the disappearance of environmental defender José Gabriel Pelayo Zalgado.
PBI-Mexico accompanied Indigenous Purhépecha lawyer María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz alleges the indigenous peoples of Michoacán have faced collusion between companies, organized crime and the government. Animal Politico has reported that Pelayo was threatened by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel before being disappeared.
Concerns about potential similar relationships in Colombia have also been explored in investigative journalism in Canadian independent media: “Canadian multinationals benefit from Colombian cartels” (Lital Khaikin, The Breach) and “Toronto gold miners unfazed by paramilitaries’ brutal reign” (Joshua Collins, The Breach).
Questions
Numerous questions arise in this emerging situation:
1- Which Mexican cartels will the Government of Canada name as a “terrorist group” under Canada’s Criminal Code?
2- Public Safety Canada has stated: “It is a criminal offence for anyone in Canada and Canadians abroad to knowingly deal with property owned or controlled by a terrorist group.” What implications could this have for Canadian transnational mining companies operating in cartel-controlled territory in Mexico?
3- In what ways could Canada designating Mexican cartels as terrorist groups further endanger environmental defenders?
4- Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders does not currently mention the risks associated with “cartels” or “organized crime”. Will these guidelines be updated?
5- What measures are being put in place to stop the cartels from accessing handguns and military-grade weapons? Are there safeguards in place for the Canadian-made “military goods” used by the Mexican National Guard?
We continue to follow this situation.
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