Donald Trump is planning to deploy military forces against Latin American drug cartels, according to US media reports.
This follows Washington’s earlier designation of several drug trafficking groups as “terrorist” organizations. The New York Times reported that Trump has instructed the Pentagon to use military force against these cartels.
The Wall Street Journal noted that the president has requested options, including the use of special forces and intelligence support, with any actions to be coordinated with international partners.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, while not confirming the reports, said in a statement that Trump’s “top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.”
The United States designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and six other drug trafficking groups with Latin American roots as terror groups in February.
The US embassy in Mexico released a statement later Friday, saying both countries would use “every tool at our disposal to protect our peoples” from drug trafficking groups.
But the Mexican foreign ministry stressed that Mexico “would not accept the participation of US military forces on our territory.”
Trump’s administration has since added another Venezuelan gang, the Cartel of the Suns, which has allegedly shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades.
The United States accuses Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro of leading that cartel — an allegation Caracas has rejected as a “ridiculous smokescreen.”
Trump signed an executive order on January 20, his first day back in the White House, creating a process for the designation of the cartels, which he said “constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Thursday interview with EWTN that the designations allow “us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever — to target these groups.”
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug-dealing organizations,” Rubio said. “It’s no longer a law enforcement issue. It becomes a national security issue.”
Trump vowed in March to “wage war” on Mexico’s drug cartels, which he accused of rape and murder.
His Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum, following the reports of potential US military action against cartels, insisted on Friday that there would be “no invasion” of her country.
Sheinbaum has made strenuous efforts to show Trump she is acting against Mexico’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.
Sheinbaum 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.
Colombian President Initiates Dialogue
Colombian president Gustavo Petro announced Friday the start of fresh talks with Clan del Golfo, the country’s largest drug-trafficking gang and the world’s largest producer of cocaine.
The powerful group has its origins in right-wing paramilitaries — its 7,500 members call themselves the Gaitanista Army of Colombia — and poses one of the main security challenges faced by the country’s leftist government.
“We have initiated conversations outside Colombia with the self-named Gaitanista Army,” Petro said during an event in Cordoba, about 180 miles (289 kilometers) west of the capital Bogota.
He did not provide further details on the talks.
Clan del Golfo considers itself a political group, and demands being recognized as such, in part, to receive judicial treatment similar to that of guerrillas and paramilitary squads.
Last month, Petro’s government presented a controversial proposal to congress to offer criminal groups certain benefits — including reduced sentences and non-extradition — in exchange for disarmament.
Since the start of his term in 2022, Petro has tried and failed to negotiate disarmament with various armed groups.
Amid record-high drug cultivation in Colombia — UN estimates say 253,000 hectares (625,000 acres) produce narcotics — the armed forces are carrying out a major offensive in an attempt to bring the drug traffickers under control.
US President Donald Trump classified Clan del Golfo as a terrorist organization via an executive order soon after starting his second term, and the United Nations has lambasted the drug trafficking group for its violent recruitment of children.
Colombia stands to lose US financial aid as its certification as an ally in the war on drugs comes up for renewal in September.
And media reports on Friday indicated Trump has called for the US military to be ready to target Latin American drug cartels deemed terrorist organizations, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Though Colombia had long been one of the United States’ closest partners in Latin America, ties have sharply deteriorated since Trump returned to the White House at the beginning of the year.
Last month, Washington recalled its top diplomat in Bogota over unspecified offensive remarks.
The month before, Petro accused the United States and “right-wing extremists” of plotting to overthrow him.
© Agence France-Presse
