Guyana Joins U.S., Latin America And Caribbean Countries To Collectively Fight Criminal Networks

MS-13, Gulf Cartel And 22 Other Criminal Networks Targeted

By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News |

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK / GEORGETOWN — Guyana has joined the United States and 14 partner nations across Latin America and the Caribbean in adopting a landmark multilateral security declaration pledging coordinated sanctions, targeted financial blacklists, and cross-border law enforcement crackdowns against at least 24 major narco-terrorist organizations operating across the Western Hemisphere.

The commitment was formalized during the 2nd Shield of the Americas Ministerial Meeting, convened on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali represented Guyana alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and hemispheric leaders, endorsing an expansive security and multilateral roadmap first conceptualized when the coalition was formed in March 2026.

The New York Joint Communiqué: 15 Nations Unite Under Three Pillars

Out of 19 participating delegations present at the New York talks, 15 member states formally signed and adopted the ministerial Joint Communiqué, establishing an integrated regional security compact built upon three fundamental pillars:

1. Economic Resilience: Disrupting illicit financial flows, dismantling commercial front companies, and freezing assets linked to transnational organized crime.
2. Citizen and State Security: Expanding intelligence exchanges, civilian policing capacity, border surveillance, and joint operational takedowns.
3. Multilateral Coordination: Aligning foreign policy, diplomatic messaging, and mutual legal assistance to protect regional democracies against armed non-state actors.

The 15 signatory nations comprise:

• The Caribbean & North America: Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.
• Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama.
• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru.
• The Greater Antilles: The Dominican Republic.

Direct Offensive: 24 Transnational Cartels and Gangs Targeted

The coalition’s initial operational mandate targets 24 primary criminal organizations whose illicit narcotics pipelines, weapons trafficking networks, and extortion rings undermine stability throughout the Americas.

Among the prominent entities designated for coordinated sanctions, asset seizures, and law enforcement interdiction are:

• Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13): The violent transnational street gang originating in Central America and operating extensive criminal distribution networks across North and South America.
• The Gulf Cartel (Cartel del Golfo): One of Mexico’s oldest and most violent drug syndicates, heavily embedded in synthetic drug, cocaine, and weapons trafficking.
• FARC Dissident Groups: Armed insurgent remnants of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that rejected the 2016 peace accord, controlling strategic cocaine production belts and trafficking corridors bordering Venezuela and northern South America.

Under the agreement, member nations pledged to coordinate national sanctions regimes, deploy immediate asset freeze orders, expand intelligence sharing between civilian law enforcement bodies, and deliver synchronized humanitarian and strategic communications support to counter gang coercion.

The signatories simultaneously reaffirmed their mutual commitment to respecting national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and democratic self-determination as foundational tenets of the alliance.

Invoking the Rio Treaty: Activating the OAS Organ of Consultation

To provide the coalition’s joint enforcement actions with binding international legal standing, the Shield of the Americas member states announced immediate steps to mobilize the statutory apparatus of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty / TIAR):

• OAS Engagement: The coalition will formally petition the President of the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council to formally establish and convene the Organ of Consultation.
• Statutory Grounds: The invocation will proceed under Articles 6 and 13 of the Rio Treaty, which govern collective hemispheric responses to non-traditional security crises, aggression, and situations imperiling regional peace.
• Ministerial Resolution: Upon the formal convening of the Organ of Consultation, member states plan to attend at the ministerial level to debate and adopt a binding resolution empowering hemispheric armed forces and security agencies to execute collective measures against designated narco-terrorist syndicates.

Accompanying President Ali at the high-level security proceedings in New York were Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud and Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.