Share this article:XBlueskyFacebookGet Article LinkFrom drone strikes to covert operations to commando raids, Donald Trump has adopted a more aggressive military posture in Latin America than any U.S. president since the end of the Cold War. This radical new vision for regional security cooperation would see the U.S. military, for the first time, enter into open and direct combat with dozens of regional drug-trafficking cartels that the State Department has designated as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), bringing America’s war on terror to the Western Hemisphere. Though blurring the lines between crime and terror is unlikely to halt the flow of deadly narcotics into the United States, it will pose major risks both for civilians and for the stability of the region’s dwindling leftist governments. While U.S. officials have thrown around the word “narcoterrorist” to describe cartels since former President George W. Bush’s time in office, these groups were never considered threats to the United States, its citizens and its overseas interests. Nor were they ever formally designated as FTOs by the U.S. government.