Designates Haitian gang alliance with significant influence as a global terrorist group, according to U.S. authorities.

In a stunning move, the US has tagged Haiti's notorious Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif gang alliances as "transnational terrorist groups" — a designation backed by deemed-equivalent sanctions on October 28, 2025.

The U.S. Treasury Department's decision came after the Viv Ansanm alliance overtook almost the entire capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding regions, while the Gran Grif gang took responsibility for a horrific massacre in the agricultural town of Pont-Sonde, claiming at least 115 lives.

In a forceful statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained, "These terrorist groups pose a direct threat to our U.S. national security interests in the region." He warned that providing these gangs with material support or resources could lead to criminal charges and be a cause for inadmissibility or removal from the United States.

The gang-fueled conflict in Haiti, however, remains underserved by the international community, with neighboring nations, such as the U.S., continuing to deport migrants to Haiti despite urgent UN pleas due to humanitarian concerns.

According to recent estimates, over a million people have been displaced, and tens of thousands more have been uprooted in recent weeks due to the spreading violence, forcing closures of health facilities and pushing people into severe food insecurity.

Political and financial hurdles, including frozen U.S. funding for security efforts, cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other reductions, compound the chaos in Haiti.

In February 2023, the U.S. designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, along with several other organized crime groups across Latin America, as global terrorist organizations. The U.S. government then invoked a wartime act to brand Tren de Aragua as "alien enemies," paving the way for mass deportations of Venezuelans to a controversial Salvadoran prison.

The implications of the new designations for Haiti's security landscape are still unclear. Yet, the gangs' significant advances in 2025, combined with an under-resourced U.N.-backed security mission and an ineffective police force, demonstrate the urgent need for robust action.

The U.N. has called for strong border control measures to curb gun trafficking into Haitian gangs, particularly focusing on the substantial flow of illegal firearms from the U.S., mainly through Florida ports.

Luckson Elan, leader of the Gran Grif gang, and Jimmy Cherizier, spokesperson for the Viv Ansanm alliance, both face U.N. sanctions. Despite these measures, further action on an international, local, and grassroots level will be crucial to the stabilization of Haiti.

The designation of Haiti's Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif gang alliances as "transnational terrorist groups" could especially yield significant gains in the general-news and crime-and-justice sectors, given their direct threat to US national security interests.
In 2025, these transnational terrorist groups' advances, combined with an under-resourced U.N.-backed security mission and an ineffective police force in Haiti, underscore the necessity for robust international action against gun trafficking, especially focusing on the substantial flow of illegal firearms from the US, primarily through Florida ports.
The gang-fueled conflict in Haiti has led to a dire state of health, with over a million people displaced and tens of thousands more uprooted in recent weeks, forcing closures of health facilities and pushing people into severe food insecurity.
In a stunning move reminiscent of 2025, trafficking any material support or resources to these Haitian transnational terrorist groups could lead to criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States.
Despite individual U.N. sanctions on leaders like Luckson Elan and Jimmy Cherizier, further action on an international, local, and grassroots level will be crucial to the dismantling of transnational terrorist groups, ensuring a safer and more stable Haiti by 2025.