US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would “wage war” against the drug gangs in Mexico, accusing them of murder and rape and “posing a grave threat” to national order.
In his first speech since regaining power, he told Congress, “The cartels are waging war on America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing.”
Trump issued the warning just hours after imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, claiming that the United States was not making enough headway in reducing the importation of drugs like fentanyl.
The Trump administration, which last month labelled several Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organisations, has made cracking down on gang members and undocumented immigrants a top focus.
“Criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture, and exercise total control now control the territory immediately south of our border,” Trump said to the joint session of Congress.
“They have total control over a whole nation, posing a grave threat to our national security.”
Credit: REUTERS/Henry Romero
Trump’s increasing pressure forced Mexico to extradite 29 suspected drug traffickers to the US last week.
The Mexican government was accused of having an “intolerable alliance” with drug trafficking organisations by the White House, a charge that President Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed as “slander.”
“They wish for our happiness. About the extradition, Trump stated, “First time ever.”
“But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA.”
Last month, Sheinbaum issued a warning to the United States saying that Mexico would never accept an “invasion” of its national sovereignty in the war on drugs.
“They can call them (the cartels) whatever they want, but with Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion,” she said.
Sheinbaum, who last month announced the deployment of 10,000 additional troops to the US-Mexico border, where cartels operate, added, “We do not negotiate sovereignty.”
