It does not stitch without thread. The president of the United States, between bravado and bravado, is leaving clues about his possible actions. In the past, they were believed to be only threats, pressure, and intimidation, but in the new Trump era, we have discovered that they can be true truth. That he doesn’t care about ignoring international law, the sovereignty of his neighbor and Washington’s historic foreign alliances.
Therefore, we must take seriously the announcement that the Republican made this morning: his country is going to begin attacks “on the ground” against the drug trafficking cartels, which he stated “are directing Mexico.” “We are going to start attacking on the ground when it comes to the cartels,” he said literally in an interview with the network.
His statements come less than a week after the CIA and the US Army executed a device to capture the president and his wife in Venezuela, and drag him before a Federal Court in New York to try him for “narcoterrorism.”
Already in that context, on January 5, Trump himself referred to his neighbor to the south, to combat the narco of that country, an issue that, according to his words, he had raised with the president, who has repeatedly rejected it due to the country’s sovereignty and that her Executive is committed to a peaceful solution. He said of the leftist that “she is a great person,” but that “she is a little afraid of the cartels controlling Mexico.”
“Something has to be done with Mexico. Mexico has to organize, because (narcotics) are leaking from Mexico. And we are going to have to do something. We would love for Mexico to do it. They are capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico,” Trump said then.
“It’s very very sad to see”
Now, the tenant of the White House goes further and announces attacks, directly. “The cartels are running Mexico. It is very, very sad to see and realize what has happened in that country. But the cartels are running it and they are killing 250,000 or 300,000 people in our country every year,” added the Republican in the interview broadcast today.
Trump praised his Mexican counterpart but considered that the president “is worried” and “has a little fear about the cartels controlling Mexico.”
Since the beginning of his second term, and as he had done repeatedly in the electoral campaign that led him to repeat as president, the magnate has promised to fight drug trafficking with a strong hand, especially that from Mexico. In addition to the offer to send the Army, he has tightened the screws on the Mexican Executive, a year ago, precisely in part, he argued, for not doing enough on the matter, in his eyes.
Trump and his Cabinet have insisted in recent days that Washington will not hesitate to use its military power to defend its national security, which it considers threatened by Mexican cartels. He has also launched threats against Colombia and Cuba, although with the first of these countries there seems to be detente, after the hour-long conversation yesterday. They have promised to meet in Washington.
The importance of Mexico
Trump hit Venezuela first, with the excuse of drug trafficking, due to his interest in overthrowing Maduro and controlling the oil of the country with the largest planetary reserves (approximately 18%). But the problem of trafficking and mafias is even greater with Mexico or Colombia. The main producers are Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador and the transit countries, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic. China is also identified as the main supplier of the chemical precursors necessary to synthesize fentanyl on Mexican soil.
What, specifically, is the importance of Mexico?
- Mexico and the United States share more than 3,000 kilometers of border. For decades, the southern cartels developed a sophisticated chain of transportation and distribution of cocaine that arrives from South America to introduce most of it to their northern neighbor. Many times it happens through official ports of entry, too.
- However, the biggest concern for Washington regarding Mexico is the production and distribution of synthetic substances such as methamphetamines and opioids such as fentanyl, the drug linked to an “overdose epidemic” in the US.
- In recent years, more than one hundred thousand people have died in Trump’s nation from drug overdoses and the rise in the consumption of synthetic opiates, especially fentanyl, has set off all the alarms. Fentanyl is the leading cause of deaths from this cause in the US, although from 2023 to 2024 the rate fell to its lowest point in five years.
- According to the DEA, the Department of Justice and the Congressional Research Service, illicit fentanyl is produced almost entirely in Mexico, with precursors imported from countries in Asia, and both that and its trafficking are controlled by Mexican cartels. These groups also have a notable weight in training and exporting experience to other countries and markets.
- According to the , the presence of Mexican “agronomists” in Colombia has been reported, involved with the improvement of coca leaf strains, as well as the participation of cartels such as that of Sinaloa in European networks that depend on the logistical support, experience and preparation of their members. It is what is known as the export of the “Mexican method”, as described to this medium by Laurent Laniel, director of the Crime, Precursors and Drug Consumption office of the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA, for its acronym in English).
The think tank and media outlet points to Mexican criminal organizations as the largest, most sophisticated and violent in the Western Hemisphere.
They emerged from a long history of smuggling and proximity to the US, the world’s largest economy, and became a regional threat with networks stretching from Argentina to Canada and Europe.
Greetings to Machado
In the same interview with Fox, the network friendly to the movement, Trump also referred to the situation in Venezuela, which is facing a time of enormous uncertainty after the defenestration of Maduro. His cooperation with his successor, , has drawn attention, and the disdain with which he has treated, on the other hand, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, , whom he does not seem to count on in this transition stage. Machado will be in Washington DC next week and the American has said that he is interested in greeting her.
When asked by the interviewer, Sean Hannity, he referred to her as “a good person” and added that he would like to see her when she visits the capital of her country, now that she managed to leave Venezuela to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo (Norway). The journalist asked the president if he would accept the Nobel Prize won by the dissident for ordering the military operation that captured Maduro, and Trump responded: “It would be a great honor.”
Trump’s interest in meeting Machado next week contrasts with his first statements about the Venezuelan opposition leader after Maduro’s capture, when he said he believed she was not ready to take power in Caracas and that she did not have popular support. Nor has he opted to call elections, as requested by critics of the ruling party, those who consider themselves legitimate winners of the 2024 elections, those whose minutes Maduro never wanted to show.
The Republican also stated in the interview that Venezuela and that in the near future there will be elections in the South American country. This Friday, the US president is scheduled to meet with representatives of 14 oil companies that will work on the “reconstruction of the infrastructure” related to the country’s crude oil.
