The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion in the Unit­ed States on Fri­day des­ig­nat­ed two Hait­ian gangs as ter­ror­ist or­gan­i­sa­tions.

“To­day, I am an­nounc­ing the State De­part­ment’s des­ig­na­tion of Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as For­eign Ter­ror­ist Or­gan­i­sa­tions (FTOs) and Spe­cial­ly Des­ig­nat­ed Glob­al Ter­ror­ists (SDGTs),” said US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio. “The age of im­puni­ty for those sup­port­ing vi­o­lence in Haiti is over.”

Ru­bio, a for­mer US Sen­a­tor, who was born in Mi­a­mi, Flori­da to Cuban im­mi­grants, said Hait­ian gangs, in­clud­ing the Viv Ansanm coali­tion and Gran Grif, are “the pri­ma­ry source of in­sta­bil­i­ty and vi­o­lence in Haiti.

“They are a di­rect threat to US na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­ter­ests in our re­gion,” he added. “These gangs have killed and con­tin­ue at­tack­ing the peo­ple of Haiti, Hait­ian se­cu­ri­ty forces, and Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port (MSS) mis­sion per­son­nel, and are com­mit­ted to over­throw­ing the gov­ern­ment of Haiti.

“Their ul­ti­mate goal is cre­at­ing a gang-con­trolled state where il­lic­it traf­fick­ing and oth­er crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties op­er­ate freely and ter­ror­ize Hait­ian cit­i­zens,” Ru­bio con­tin­ued. “Ter­ror­ist des­ig­na­tions play a crit­i­cal role in our fight against these vi­cious groups and are an ef­fec­tive way to cur­tail sup­port for their ter­ror­ist ac­tiv­i­ties.”

He said en­gag­ing in trans­ac­tions with mem­bers of these groups “en­tails risk in re­la­tion to coun­tert­er­ror­ism sanc­tions au­thor­i­ties, not on­ly for Haitians but al­so for US law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dents and US cit­i­zens.”

The US Sec­re­tary of State said in­di­vid­u­als and en­ti­ties pro­vid­ing ma­te­r­i­al sup­port or re­sources to Viv Ansanm or Gran Grif could face crim­i­nal charges and in­ad­mis­si­bil­i­ty or re­moval from the Unit­ed States.

He said the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion com­mends “the ex­tra­or­di­nary brav­ery of the Hait­ian Na­tion­al Po­lice and all in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners sup­port­ing the MSS mis­sion for their on­go­ing ef­forts to es­tab­lish sta­bil­i­ty and se­cu­ri­ty in Haiti.

“We urge all of Haiti’s po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to pri­or­i­tize the se­cu­ri­ty of the Hait­ian peo­ple, find so­lu­tions to stop the vi­o­lence, and make progress to­ward the restora­tion of democ­ra­cy through free and fair elec­tions,” Ru­bio said.

“The Unit­ed States stands with the Hait­ian peo­ple as they seek a se­cure, sta­ble fu­ture for their coun­try and cit­i­zens,” he added.

Ru­bio said Fri­day’s ac­tions “demon­strate the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­ter­ests and coun­ter­ing these dan­ger­ous gangs.”

The US De­part­ment of State said Viv Ansanm is a group formed in Sep­tem­ber 2023 as a coali­tion of gangs through an al­liance be­tween the two main gang fac­tions op­er­at­ing in Port-au-Prince, the Hait­ian cap­i­tal: G-9 and G-Pép.

It said the groups pro­vide “a uni­fied plat­form for crim­i­nal groups to use vi­o­lence to desta­bi­lize Haiti and quash ac­tions aimed at restor­ing state con­trol.”

The State De­part­ment said Viv Ansanm has launched “co­or­di­nat­ed at­tacks on crit­i­cal in­fra­struc­ture in Haiti, in­clud­ing pris­ons, gov­ern­ment build­ings, and Haiti’s main air­port in Port-au-Prince as part of a cam­paign that, among oth­er things, forced the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Hait­ian Prime Min­is­ter Ariel Hen­ry.”

The de­part­ment said Gran Grif is the largest gang in Haiti’s Art­i­bonite de­part­ment, a re­gion that is home to much of the coun­try’s rice fields.

Since 2022, it said Gran Grif has been re­spon­si­ble for 80 per­cent of civil­ian death re­ports in Art­i­bonite.

The State De­part­ment said Gran Grif has at­tacked Hait­ian Na­tion­al Po­lice and the UN-au­tho­rized MSS mis­sion, in­clud­ing in the Feb­ru­ary 2025 at­tack that killed a Kenyan MSS mis­sion of­fi­cer.

“Ter­ror­ist des­ig­na­tions ex­pose and iso­late en­ti­ties and in­di­vid­u­als, deny­ing them ac­cess to the US fi­nan­cial sys­tem and the re­sources they need to car­ry out at­tacks,” the State De­part­ment said.

“All prop­er­ty and in­ter­ests in prop­er­ty of those des­ig­nat­ed to­day that are in the Unit­ed States or that are in pos­ses­sion or con­trol of a US per­son are blocked,” it added, stat­ing that US na­tion­als are gen­er­al­ly pro­hib­it­ed from con­duct­ing busi­ness with sanc­tioned per­sons.”

The State De­part­ment warned that per­sons, in­clud­ing Amer­i­can cit­i­zens, who en­gage in cer­tain trans­ac­tions or ac­tiv­i­ties with these en­ti­ties, or these in­di­vid­u­als, “may ex­pose them­selves to sanc­tions risk.

“No­tably, en­gag­ing in cer­tain trans­ac­tions with the or­gan­i­sa­tions des­ig­nat­ed to­day en­tails risk of sec­ondary sanc­tions pur­suant to coun­tert­er­ror­ism au­thor­i­ties,” it said, warn­ing that it is a crime to “know­ing­ly pro­vide ma­te­r­i­al sup­port or re­sources to these or­gan­i­sa­tions, or to at­tempt or con­spire to do so.

“More­over, ter­ror­ist des­ig­na­tions can as­sist law en­force­ment ac­tions of oth­er US agen­cies and gov­ern­ments,” the State De­part­ment added.

WASH­ING­TON, May 4,  CMC –

CMC/nk/kb/2025