Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations will have an impact on Mexico only if there is close coordination between the two governments.
He said Mexico would defend its sovereignty and independence while seeking coordination with the US in view of the order signed on Monday.
“We all want to fight the drug cartels,” Sheinbaum said at his daily press briefing. America is “in their area, we in our area.”
Trump’s order highlighted Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups such as the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The order said they “threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
The order did not list any Mexican cartels by name, but said the Cabinet Secretary would recommend groups for designation as terrorist organizations in the next 14 days. It was among a number of executive orders Trump signed on Monday to end his administration, many of which focused on securing the southern border.
The order states, “The cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries critical to our national interests, but has also destabilized the United States by providing access to deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious Filled with gangs.” ,
It was unclear what effect fighting the cartels might have, but there were concerns it could be another way to make access to the US more difficult for people from countries where these groups operate.
It came in addition to measures including a declaration of emergency at the US southern border, a promise to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada on February 1 and ending the use of the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to apply for asylum. Appointments before reaching the border.
Trump has also threatened mass deportations and promised military intervention in Mexico to fight the cartels, a move Sheinbaum has sharply rejected.
Many have expressed concern that the terrorist designation could provide the US with justification to take military action against the cartel.
Wanda Felbab-Brown, an organized crime expert at the Brookings Institution, said the order could have “huge impacts from business to immigrants.”
As the cartels have gained a firm grip on control of the lucrative migrant smuggling trade in recent years, it is almost impossible for migrants and asylum seekers to pass through Mexico and other Latin American countries without paying some kind of fee to the cartels.
The moment they do, it could disqualify them from seeking asylum, Felbab-Brown said.
“Trump could essentially block the majority of undocumented immigrants trying to cross the U.S. border from getting asylum,” he said.
Mike Vigil, former head of foreign operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said he expected any counterterrorism designation to have little impact on day-to-day operations against the cartels because U.S. authorities already have many similar counterterrorism powers. Must have been provided. Employ in anti-narcotics efforts.
“This has happened before. This is nothing new,” Vigil said. “It’s all political theater and tossing a piece of stale salami [Trump’s] Base.”
He said that logically the order would potentially allow the US to freeze assets of groups in the US, impose sanctions on US citizens doing business with terrorist organizations and prevent members of those groups from entering the US.
He said, “It will not allow the US to send troops to Mexico as many people think because people forget that Mexico is a sovereign country and that would be an act of war.”
The move comes as cartel violence has escalated in northern Mexican states following the kidnapping and detention of leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, sparking an all-out war between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel. Gunmen are dumping mutilated bodies across the state and are also kidnapping people from hospitals.
It’s part of a larger shift in cartel warfare in the Latin American nation. Years ago, a handful of criminal organizations led by a few prominent capos controlled large parts of Mexico. Now, many more factions have struggled violently for power, as they have become more agile and harder to control.
They have used more sophisticated equipment such as bomb-dropping drones, improvised explosive devices and hardened armored vehicles, and have expanded into migrant smuggling and the avocado trade. Meanwhile, thousands of Mexican civilians were caught in the crossfire, killed or missing.
