Mexico will never tolerate an invasion of its national sovereignty by the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Thursday after Washington designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
“This cannot be an opportunity for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty,” she said. “With Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”
On Wednesday, the Trump administration formally labeled eight cartels as terrorist groups. They include Mexico’s two main drug trafficking organizations, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House saying that the cartels “constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”
The move has raised speculation about possible military action.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been given a prominent role in the Trump administration, said on social media the designation “means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”
Experts, however, said that bombing Mexican cartels or sending troops over the border still appeared unlikely, although Mr. Trump’s unpredictability makes it impossible to completely rule out.
Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP via Getty Images
The idea “used to be something that was found in a niche, very much on the fringes, and now it is at the center of the discussion,” said Cecilia Farfan-Mendez, an analyst at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
In 2022, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told “60 Minutes” that during his first term President Trump suggested firing missiles into Mexico to combat drug cartels there. Esper also said when he pushed back on the idea, Mr. Trump said, “No one would know it was us.”
Mexico targets U.S. gun manufacturers
Sheinbaum also said Thursday that Mexico would follow through on her promise to expand its legal action against U.S. gun manufacturers following Washington’s decision to designate cartels as terrorist groups.
The Mexican government accuses U.S. arms makers of negligence in the sale of weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers, and Sheinbaum said the lawsuit could lead to a new charge of alleged complicity with terrorist groups.
An estimated 200,000 to half a million American firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year, “60 Minutes” reported in December.
A 2023 CBS Reports investigation found that dozens of cartel gunrunning networks, operating like terrorist cells, pay Americans to buy weapons from gun stores and online dealers all across the country, as far north as Wisconsin and even Alaska, according to U.S. intelligence sources. The firearms are then shipped across the southwest border through a chain of brokers and couriers.
Mexico has already filed a lawsuit in the United States against U.S. arms manufacturers and vendors, claiming $10 billion in damages for their alleged role in criminal violence in the country.
Earlier this month, Sheinbaum angrily rejected an accusation by the United States that her government has an alliance with drug cartels.
“We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” the president wrote on social media at the time.
“If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the U.S. gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added.
Last month, Sheinbaum launched a campaign to crack down on the number of weapons on the country’s streets by offering cash to those who anonymously leave weapons at designated drop-off locations, including churches.
