United States: Trump wants to use the army against South American cartels

Donald Trump asked the army to prepare to target South American drug cartels, several of which were placed by Washington on the list of terrorist organizations, the American media report on Friday.

The American president ordered the Pentagon to start using the military force against the cartels designated as terrorist organizations, says the New York Times.

This order establishes, according to the New York daily, an official basis for carrying out direct military operations at sea and on foreign territories against cartels.

The Wall Street Journal for its part explains that the president has so far been asked of the Ministry of Defense to prepare options to do this.

The use of special forces and intelligence units is among the options envisaged, and any action would be coordinated with the countries concerned, adds the WSJ. Questioned by AFP, the Pentagon returned the questions to the White House.

Without confirming press information, a spokesperson for the American executive, Anna Kelly, stressed in a statement that the “absolute priority (Donald Trump) was to protect the national territory, and that is why he took the daring measure to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations”.

In a statement released on Friday on X, the United States Embassy in Mexico said Washington intended to “use all means at its disposal” to combat trafficking, without explicitly evoking armed intervention in this country and emphasizing its desire to “collaborate in sovereign partners”.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed in a statement that the country “would not accept the participation of the American military forces in our territory”.

The United States has appointed in February the Venezuelan gang Tren of Aragua, the Mexican cartel of Sinaloa and six other groups of drug traffickers as terrorist organizations.

The Trump administration added the “Los Soles Cartel” in July to this list, which she described as a Venezuelan gang led by President Nicolas Maduro to support drug trafficking to the United States.

The United States announced Thursday that it has doubled dollars (40.4 million Swiss francs) the premium for the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, charged by the American drug trafficking and whose re-election, was not recognized by Washington.

In March, in his speech to Congress, Donald Trump had promised to “war” the Mexican drug cartels, speaking of a “serious threat” for the “national security” of the United States.

His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, explained Thursday in an interview with the Catholic television channel EWTN that the appointment of cartels as terrorist organizations allowed “to target their operations and to use other elements of the American power, the intelligence agencies, the Minister of Defense, whatever, to target these groups”.

“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not just drug traffickers,” added Marco Rubio. “It is no longer a question of maintaining order. It becomes a question of national security. “

In response to the information published in the press, the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, assured on Friday that there would be “no invasion of Mexico” by American soldiers.

“The United States will not come to Mexico with its soldiers; We cooperate, collaborate, but there will be no invasion, this is dismissed, absolutely dismissed, and moreover, we have expressed it in all calls: it is not allowed, or planned by any agreement, “she hammered.

Claudia Sheinbaum has multiplied efforts to show Donald Trump that his country effectively fought against cartels, which he accuses of saturating the United States of drugs, especially fentanyl, a powerful opioid.