by the El Reportero‘s wire services
Four months ago, Donald Trump said he was “absolutely” prepared to launch United States military strikes against Mexican cartels if large quantities of drugs continued to flow into the U.S. from Mexico.
During the second Trump administration, could the United States military even carry out some kind of incursion into Mexican territory to combat powerful transnational criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)?
That possibility, according to reporting by Rolling Stone magazine, is being debated by members of Trump’s transition team. President Claudia Sheinbaum effectively dismissed the veracity of the magazine’s reporting at her Thursday morning press conference.
Rolling Stone reported on Wednesday that there is “a fresh debate” within Trump’s “government-in-waiting” over “whether and how thoroughly the president-elect should follow through on his campaign promise to attack or even invade Mexico as part of the ‘war’ he’s pledged to wage against powerful drug cartels.”
The magazine quoted an unnamed “senior Trump transition member” as saying: “How much should we invade Mexico? That is the question.”
For its report, Rolling Stone said it spoke with six unnamed Republicans who have each spoken to Trump about the possibility of using U.S. military force against Mexican cartels.
It said that some of its sources have briefed the former and future U.S. president on a range of ways that the U.S. military could be used against the criminal organizations that ship fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs across Mexico’s northern border. They include:
- Drone strikes or airstrikes on cartel infrastructure or drug labs.
- Sending in military trainers and “advisers” to Mexico.
- Deploying “kill teams” on Mexican soil. (Rolling Stone reported in May that “Trump wants to covertly deploy American assassination squads into Mexico soon after he’s sworn into office again.”)
- Waging cyber warfare against drug lords and their networks.
- Sending American special forces to Mexico to conduct a series of raids and abductions of notorious cartel figures. (Following the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in July, the highest profile fugitive drug lord in Mexico is CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.)
Rolling Stone cited a “Trump adviser” as saying it is “unclear how far” Trump will go in his quest to combat Mexican cartels and stem the flow of narcotics across the United States’ southern border.
“If things don’t change, the president still believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers,” the source said.
Rolling Stone said that “another source close to Trump” described “what they call a ‘soft invasion’ of Mexico, in which American special forces — not a large theater deployment — would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders.”
“Indeed, this is a preliminary plan that Trump himself warmed to in private conversations this year,” the magazine said.
Rolling Stone said that Trump has “told confidants and some GOP lawmakers that he plans to tell the Mexican government they need to stem the flow of fentanyl to America — somehow, in a span of several months — or else he’ll send in the U.S. military.”
Earlier this week, the president-elect said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States on the first day of his second term as U.S. president due to what he described as the “long-simmering problem” of drugs and “illegal aliens” entering the U.S.
With his cabinet picks, Trump has emphasized his commitment to taking action against what he calls an “invasion” of the United States.
Rolling Stone reported that several of his cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense and secretary of state, “have publicly supported the idea of potentially unleashing the U.S. military in Mexico.”
“So has the man Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. So has the man Trump selected as his ‘border czar’ to lead his immigration crackdowns. So have various Trump allies in Congress and in the media,” the magazine added.
After three women and six children were murdered in an ambush in northern Mexico during his first term as president, Trump said that “if Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these [cartel] monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively.”
“… This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the Earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!” Trump said in a social media post in late 2019.
Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador declined Trump’s offer.
“We don’t need the intervention of a foreign government to attend to these cases. … We are a free and sovereign country; another government cannot intervene in our territory if there isn’t a cooperation agreement and, of course, without an express request on our part,” Lopez Obrador said at the time.
‘What is their basis?’
At her morning press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum agreed with a reporter who likened Rolling Stone’s report to a far-fetched movie.
Sheinbaum said that she bases her view on the United States’ intentions during the second Trump administration on the two conversations she has had with the president-elect, including one on Wednesday.
She said that Trump asked her on Wednesday how the United States can collaborate with Mexico on security issues.
“I told him that within the framework of our sovereignty there are schemes for collaboration,” Sheinbaum said.
“… We’re always going to defend our sovereignty. Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country. And that’s above everything,” she said.
With reports from Rolling Stone.
