Translated by Schools for Chiapas in collaboration with Avispa Mídia
The Donald Trump administration is making a strategic shift in redefining its national security doctrine and foreign policy, categorizing various political expressions under the concept of “far-left political terrorism”—an approach that guides its security agenda with the countries it considers its allies. The goal is to investigate, dismantle, and prosecute certain social movements.
Under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Ministerial Meeting on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism was held on July 16. The event brought together delegations from 66 countries in the Loy Henderson Conference Room—the State Department’s largest meeting space—under the banner of combating “far-left terrorists.” Participating countries included Spain, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Italy, Chile, Uruguay, and Israel.
This forum is not an isolated event but rather part of a broader strategy designed and implemented by the White House, which classifies “acts of domestic terrorism” as “priority issues for U.S. federal law enforcement,” as stipulated in Presidential National Security Memorandum No. 7 (NSPM-7).
The NSPM-7 serves as the backbone for the event chaired by Marco Rubio, but above all, for the commitments made in this joint offensive against so-called “left-wing terrorism.” President Trump had already signed the memorandum in September 2025, instructing all U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement organizations, as well as those responsible for administering justice, to dismantle, defund, and prosecute networks classified as “far-left terrorists.”
According to NSPM-7, the objective is to “investigate, prosecute, and dismantle entities and individuals involved in acts of political violence.”
According to Trump, the motive behind the decision to classify certain “far-left” groups as such was the murder of Charlie Kirk—an influential conservative commentator who was shot and killed that same month of September—which the president described as “horrifying.”
This was also the main catalyst for convening the ministerial meeting, where Marco Rubio lashed out at what he called a historical “blind spot” in Western counterterrorism doctrine, arguing that “far-left violence has been misclassified by academia and the media as a ‘tragic excess of idealism.’”
In the crosshairs
Along the same lines, and in keeping with the new U.S. security doctrine, Stephen Miller, the White House national security adviser, did not hesitate to denounce the anti-fascist (antifa) movement and related groups, labeling them an “infection” that seeks to overthrow Western systems of government, and urging allies not to give in to these actors’ appeals for “civil liberties.”
The U.S. State Department classifies various anarchist and anti-fascist groups as “left-wing terrorists,” groups that have joined protests against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. These are the same people who have taken to the streets in support of migrants’ rights. They are the ones who protested the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are the same people who took to the streets following the murder of Mexican migrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo this past July 2026, after he died from gunshot wounds inflicted by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On the left is the officer who caused George Floyd’s death. On the right is the Mexican migrant, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed by multiple shots fired by ICE in July 2026.
The State Department has directly classified various groups labeled as “far-left” as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). Among the groups identified are:
Antifa Ost (also known in English as Antifa East) is referred to by German authorities and intelligence agencies as the “Lina E Group.” A militant group based in Germany.
Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front. A militant anarchist group operating primarily in Italy, with self-proclaimed affiliates in Europe, South America, and Asia.
Armed Proletarian Justice. An anarchist and “anti-capitalist” group of Greek origin.
Revolutionary Class Self-Defense. An anarchist and “anti-capitalist” group also of Greek origin.
Convergence
The Trump administration is particularly concerned about the convergence of these movements; therefore, since last May, it has held the Inaugural Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Workshop with security groups from this country and other invited nations—a forum designed for security professionals from the U.S. and abroad to share threat assessments and best operational practices.
Among the objectives set forth in these meetings with allied countries are the exchange of intelligence information, the strengthening of extradition mechanisms, and targeted law enforcement efforts, all under the banner of unifying efforts.
Thus, the strategy derived from NSPM-7 is not limited to a political statement but rather constitutes an action plan involving multiple federal agencies. Among them is the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which will coordinate a “comprehensive national strategy” to investigate and dismantle these networks in the U.S.
This initiative has raised concerns in various sectors, primarily among nonprofit organizations. The law firm WilmerHale warned that the measure could “trigger a series of actions, including reviews of organizations’ tax-exempt status and, potentially, criminal investigations” against “foundations, individual donors, and other nonprofit organizations.”
ICE agents detaining migrants.
The results of the summit
The United States’ strategy has been to steer foreign delegations toward aligning their security policies with U.S. guidelines and interests. Ambassador Gregory LoGerfo, coordinator of the Office of Counterterrorism, outlined at least three concrete outcomes of the ministerial meeting involving U.S. allies.
During the ministerial meeting, international partners were pressured to “align their own legal frameworks” to prevent these groups from operating or moving freely across their borders. To this end, visas will be denied to those deemed to belong to these groups. The entry ban would apply not only to the U.S. but also to its allied countries.
It also highlights that the Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Workshop—whose next session will be held in Germany—aims to integrate local police intelligence databases to “map” global dissident activities, with a focus on protecting transportation and energy networks. Consequently, pathways for capacity-building and operational coordination among the police and intelligence agencies of allied countries will be established.
In addition, “in December [2025], we announced the ‘Rewards for Justice’ program, which offers up to $10 million in exchange for information that helps disrupt the financing of these groups,” said Marco Rubio at the ministerial event.
The Case of Latin America
With regard to the Latin American region, Marco Rubio noted that “far-left political terrorism is not a recent phenomenon,” and mentioned groups that are now openly operating as political parties, such as the Tupamaros, the Montoneros, and the FARC. But he also referred to armed groups that are still active, such as Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) and Peru’s Shining Path, linking them to alleged intelligence networks of the Cuban regime and Iranian support networks.
“This is not a fiction invented by conservative politicians. In fact, for most of the modern era, it was the dominant form of political violence. All of our friends here at the Ministerial—from nations across the Western Hemisphere—remember the decades of kidnappings, bombings, assassinations, and executions,” said the U.S. Secretary of State.
Mexico
Despite pressure to unify the anti-terrorism narrative in the region, the Mexican government declined the invitation to attend the ministerial meeting. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum argued that the meeting’s focus was “more political than actually related to combating criminal groups.”
In response, Ambassador Gregory D. LoGerfo maintained that the “invitation remains open,” underscoring Washington’s determination to bring its southern neighbor into its security framework.
Transnational Legal Framework
From the perspective of U.S. security doctrine, the 2026 ministerial meeting represents a diplomatic success that “bridges the gaps” by aligning security agendas. “We can identify and map this threat and rebuild our counterterrorism architecture to defeat it. Just as we have done together before, we must now do so again together,” Secretary Marco Rubio states emphatically.
However, critical analysts warn that by defining “far-left terrorism” so broadly—including concepts such as “economic sabotage” and “incitement”—the United States is constructing a transnational legal framework that will allow it to persecute political dissent and pressure sovereign governments to adopt its domestic security agenda.
The Washington summit makes it clear that the United States seeks to export its policies so that other countries will adopt them. “It is easy to destroy great things; it is much harder to create them. The enemies of civilization are capable only of the former. They are capable only of destroying great things. The only thing they know is destruction. But we have built great things together. We have done so time and time again. We know what we must do,” Marco Rubio concludes.
