MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s executive order to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations would only impact Mexico if there was close coordination between the two governments.
She said Mexico would defend its sovereignty and independence while seeking coordination with the United States following the order signed Monday.
“We all want to fight drug cartels,” Sheinbaum said during his daily press briefing. The United States “on their territory, we on our territory”.
Trump’s order shined a spotlight on Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American crime groups like the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang. The order says they “threaten the security of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
The order does not mention Mexican cartels by name, but says Cabinet secretaries will recommend designating groups as terrorist organizations within the next 14 days. It was part of a series of executive orders Trump signed Monday to launch his administration, several of which focus on secure the southern border.
“The cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries of significant importance to our national interests, but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, criminals violent and vicious gangs,” the order states. .
It’s unclear what the impact of fighting the cartels might be, but there are concerns it could be another way of making it harder for people from countries where these groups operate to enter the United States.
Added to this are measures such as the declaration of a state of emergency at the southern border of the United States, the promise of impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada February 1 and discontinue use of the CBP One appwhich allowed migrants to request an asylum appointment before reaching the border.
Trump also promised mass deportations and threatened military intervention in Mexico to fight cartels, which Sheinbaum flatly rejected.
Many have expressed concern that the terrorist designation could provide the United States with justification to take military action against the cartels.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an organized crime expert at the Brookings Institution, said the order could have “huge implications, from a trade-to-migrant perspective.”
While cartels have gained a firm grip on controlling lucrative migrant smuggling in recent years, it is virtually impossible for migrants and asylum seekers to pass through Mexico and other Latin American countries without paying a sort of fee to the cartels.
Once they do, Felbab-Brown said, it could prevent them from seeking asylum.
“Trump can essentially block the vast majority of undocumented migrants who attempt to cross the U.S. border from obtaining asylum,” she said.
Mike Vigil, former head of foreign operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said he expected any terrorism designation to have very little impact on day-to-day operations against the cartels, because many of the same anti-terrorism powers that US authorities would have have. already used in the fight against narcotics.
“It’s already done. This is nothing new,” Vigil said. “It’s political theater and throwing a piece of stale salami at (Trump’s) base.”
He said that, logistically, the order would likely allow the United States to seize the assets of groups in the United States, sanction American citizens who do business with terrorist organizations and prevent members of these groups to enter the United States.
“It will not allow the United States to send troops to Mexico as so many people think simply because people forget that Mexico is a sovereign country and that would be an act of war,” he said. declared.
The move comes as cartel violence has intensified in Mexico’s northern states following the kidnapping and detention of kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada sparked an all-out war between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. Gunmen continue to leave mutilated bodies scattered across the state and kidnap people even from hospitals.
It’s part of a broader changing dynamic in the Latin American nation’s cartel war. Years ago, a handful of criminal organizations led by a few key capos controlled large parts of Mexico. Today, many other factions are fighting violently for power, as they have become more agile and harder to pin down.
They used more sophisticated tools like bomb-width drones, improvised explosive devices and rigged armored vehicles, and expanded into migrant smuggling and the avocado trade. Meanwhile, thousands of Mexican citizens have been caught in the crossfire, killed or missing.
Some relatives of cartel victims in violence-torn areas of Mexico hoped that designating the cartels as terrorist organizations could help them in their quest for justice.
Adrian LeBarón, whose daughter was killed in 2019 massacre in northern Mexicosaid he hoped it could increase visibility for victims of violence in Mexico, one of the most violent countries in the world that is not actively at war.
LeBarón, who called the massacre a terrorist attack, said the designation could put pressure on authorities to provide justice for victims of violence.
“An investigation into terrorism is justice not only for us, but also for every city and every corner of the country where a family has been destroyed and terror is sown in its wake,” he wrote on the network social
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Associated Press writer María Verza contributed to this report from Mexico City.
