Argentina has designated five Latin American criminal and guerrilla groups, including Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, as terrorist organisations, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Source: Associated Press via Reflector

The decision by President Javier Milei's government was published on Thursday in the official gazette. A joint resolution of Argentina's security and foreign ministries also ordered the five groups to be entered in the Public Registry of Persons and Entities Linked to Acts of Terrorism and their Financing, known as RePET, Cartel Insider reported, citing the resolution and a statement from the President's office.

The other four groups are Mexico's Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel, Ecuador's Los Tiguerones gang, and Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), a name used by dissident factions that rejected Colombia's peace agreement and remain active, AP reported.

"Argentina calls terrorism by its name and fights it in all its forms," Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said on Thursday at a news conference in Buenos Aires alongside US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who was in Argentina to promote US investment, AP reported. Landau praised Milei's cooperation on regional security.

In a statement released on Wednesday night, Milei's office said the five groups were linked to drug trafficking and organised crime. The government described the Sinaloa cartel as a transnational organisation involved in drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom, and characterised the ELN and FARC-EP as far-left insurgent groups, AP reported.

The move comes a month after US President Donald Trump's administration expanded its own list of Latin American criminal groups designated as foreign terrorist organisations to 21, AP reported. Argentina's step aligns Buenos Aires with Washington's regional security policy.