Donald Trump has suggested he could soon begin land strikes on drug cartels in Mexico as part of the next phase in his war on ‘narco-terrorists’.
The president told Fox News ‘we are going to start now hitting land’ following several military operations against Venezuelan boats said to be ferrying drugs to the US across the Caribbean Sea.
He added: ‘The cartels are running Mexico, it’s very sad to watch, and see what’s happened to that country. They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 in our country every single year.’
Last week, Trump greenlit a brazen raid inside Venezuela to capture President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who both now face narco-trafficking charges in the States.
The move fits into the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, published last month, that lays out restoring ‘American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere’ as a key goal of his second term in the White House.
Trump also put Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, and its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, on notice.
Asked what the limits are on his foreign policy powers in the region, Trump told the New York Times: ‘My own mortality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’
Mexico was among the countries who criticised the Venezuela raid, with President Claudia Sheinbaum saying such intervention had never resulted in ‘lasting well-being or stability’.
She added: ‘We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.’
Trump and his collaborators have flirted with the idea of invading or attacking the cartels in Mexico since his election campaign
Speaking after Maduro’s capture, he said: ‘You have to do something with Mexico. We’re going to have to do something.
‘We’d love Mexico to do it, they’re capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico.’
Analysts believe the threats will continue to be the Trump administration’s negotiation style, especially this year when the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA) is up for revision.
Sheinbaum downplayed the possibility of US military action this week.
‘I don’t see risks (of that),’ she said.
‘There is coordination, there is collaboration with the United States government.
‘I don’t believe in (the possibility of) invasion, I don’t believe even that it’s something they are taking seriously.
‘Organised crime is not taken care with (foreign military) intervention.’
Sheinbaum has confirmed that the idea of US military intervention in Mexico has been brought up repeatedly in her conversations with Trump but said she has always rejected the offer.
She sees it has a non-starter and insists that her relationship with Trump is one of mutual respect.
The threat though, similar to those about tariffs on Mexican imports — some carried out and others not — have been a ‘negotiation weapon’ to get ‘commercial, diplomatic and political advantages’, said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump ‘play good cop, bad cop’, with Trump threatening and Rubio smoothing over, he said.
Mexico is doing almost everything that Washington has requested since Trump began imposing tariffs, experts say.
Sheinbaum’s administration became more aggressive toward the cartels than her predecessor.
There have been more arrests, drug seizures and extraditions.
Mexico has also agreed to receive more deportees from other countries.
‘Intervention, military action in Mexico would suspend that cooperation,’ said Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political analyst at Mexico’s Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE).
That would be a great risk to the U.S. because it would be left without a partner to work with, he added.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
