(AFP) – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that there would be “no invasion of Mexico” following reports that President Donald Trump had ordered the US military to target Latin American drug cartels.
“There will be no invasion of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said after The New York Times reported that Trump had secretly signed a directive to use military force against cartels that his administration has declared terrorist organizations. “We were informed that this executive order was coming and that it had nothing to do with the participation of any military personnel or any institution in our territory,” Sheinbaum told her regular morning conference.
The Mexican foreign ministry said later that Mexico “would not accept the participation of US military forces on our territory.” The remarks followed a statement released by the US embassy in Mexico, which said both countries would use “every tool at our disposal to protect our peoples” from drug trafficking groups. US ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said on X that the countries “face a common enemy: the violent criminal cartels.”
The Pentagon referred questions on the issue to the White House, which did not immediately confirm the order. The Times said Trump’s order provided an official basis for military operations at sea or on foreign soil against the cartels. In February, his administration designated eight drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations. Six are Mexican, one is Venezuelan, and the eighth originates in El Salvador.
Two weeks ago, his administration added another Venezuelan gang, the Cartel of the Suns, which has shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades. On Thursday, the US Justice Department doubled to $50 million its bounty on Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whom it accuses of leading the Cartel of the Suns. Venezuela has dismissed the allegations, with Foreign Minister Yvan Gil calling it “the most ridiculous smokescreen we have ever seen.”
Sheinbaum has made strenuous efforts to show Trump she is acting against her country’s cartels, whom he accuses of flooding the United States with drugs, particularly fentanyl. “We are cooperating, we are collaborating, but there will be no invasion. That is absolutely ruled out,” she said. She said that in “every call” with US officials, Mexico insisted that this “is not permitted.” The 63-year-old has been dubbed the “Trump whisperer” for repeatedly securing reprieves from his threats of stiff tariffs over the smuggling of drugs and migrants across their shared border.
© 2024 AFP
