By MEGAN JANETSKYMEXICO CITY (AP) — The Trump administration Tuesday designated the Barrio 18 gang as a foreign terrorist organization, joining other Latin American criminal groups receiving the designation in recent months. Barrio 18, largely based in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, originated in the United States as a street gang in Los Angeles created by young Salvadoran immigrants as a way to protect themselves. When many of their members were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, the gang expanded and gained power across Central America, where it continues to terrorize communities. That has sharply dropped crime rates in El Salvador, but also fueled accusations of mass human rights abuses by the government. Barrio 18 joins its rival, the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and a number of Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in holding the foreign terrorist organization designation.