LAGOS AUGUST 9TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Donald Trump has ordered US army officials to begin using military force against drug cartels.
The extraordinary move has threatened a diplomatic row with Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, insisting US forces will not enter the country.
The directive marks a significant escalation in the president’s aggressive campaign against the Latin American cartels, which he has designated as foreign terrorist organisations.
Pentagon officials have started looking at plans to target the groups, sources told the New York Times.
The move opens up the possibility of military operations at sea and on foreign soil against the criminal groups.
It also raises legal concerns, such as whether killing criminal suspects outside an armed conflict zone would constitute murder.
Responding to the developments, Ms Sheinbaum said: “The United States is not going to come to Mexico with military forces.
“We cooperate and collaborate, but there will be no invasion; that is ruled out. We have stated this in all the calls.”
Mr Trump has been fixated on the idea of launching direct attacks on drug cartels since his first term, when he reportedly suggested firing missiles into Mexico to target the gangs.
In April, he asked Ms Sheinbaum to allow US troops into the country to help fight the cartels.
Mr Sheinbaum rejected the proposal, telling Mr Trump the countries could “collaborate” but “with you in your territory and us in ours”.
Mr Trump said he had suggested the idea because the cartels “are horrible people that have been killing people left and right and have… made a fortune on selling drugs and destroying our people”.
Mr Trump has already reinforced the southern border with National Guard troops in an effort to stop drugs such as fentanyl flowing into the country.
The US also ramped up its aggressive approach to dealing with the cartels earlier this year by increasing covert CIA drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs.
In February, the State Department designated Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and Central American group MS-13 as foreign terrorist organisations, which posed “a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organised crime”.
In July, Mr Trump also added Venezuelan gangs Cartel de los Soles to the group of terror groups, claiming it was headed by Nicholas Maduro, the country’s president.
On Thursday, the Trump administration doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of Mr Maduro to $50m (£31m), accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narco-traffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.
Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said Mr Maduro “will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes”.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state and Trump’s national security adviser, said designating cartels as terrorist organisations allows the country “to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the department of defence, whatever, to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it”.
During an interview with Catholic news network EWTN, he added: “We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organisations, not simply drug dealing organisations.”
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, told the New York Times: “President 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 organisations.”
The department of defence declined to comment.
The Telegraph
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