Mexico has said US military would not be entering its territory following reports that President Donald Trump had directed the Pentagon to target Latin American drug cartels.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday. “We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”
The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump had secretly signed a directive to begin using military force on foreign soil.
In a statement to the BBC, the White House did not address the directive but said that Trump’s “top priority is protecting the homeland”.
The reported directive appears to follow an executive order signed by Trump earlier this year formally designating eight drug cartels as terrorist entities – six of which are Mexican.
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Speaking to reporters, Sheinbaum said the Mexican government was informed that an order on the cartels was coming, and “that it had nothing to do with the participation of any military personnel”.
“It is not part of any agreement, far from it. When it has been brought up, we have always said ‘No’,” she said.
Earlier this year, Sheinbaum told reporters that Trump’s decision to designate cartels as terrorists “cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty”.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the designation would help the US target cartels, including through intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense.
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organisations, not simply drug dealing organisations,” Rubio said.
The New York Times report says the directive signed by Trump provides “an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations” against cartels, both at sea and on foreign soil.
In recent months, Mexico has worked with the US to curb the illegal flow of both migrants and drugs through the US-Mexico border.
June saw the lowest border crossings on record, according to data by the US Customs and Border Protections, and last week, US Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said fentanyl seizures at the border were down by over half.
In a post on X, Johnson celebrated the collaboration between Sheinbum and Trump, writing that their leadership had resulted in cartels “going bankrupt and our countries are safer because of it”.
[BBC]