Sheinbaum cites Mexican-American War as she rejects Trump’s cartel strike threats
MEXICO CITY — President Trump may be “on board,” but Mexico rejects any U.S. strike against the cartels on its territory.
That’s the message reiterated Tuesday by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly said her country would not accept attacks or U.S. troops on Mexican soil.
“It’s not going to happen,” Sheinbaum told reporters at his daily news conference. “We cannot allow intervention.”
Mexican authorities appear to have been convinced that the matter was over, especially after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that anti-drug cooperation between the United States and Mexico had reached “an all-time high,” adding: “We are not going to take unilateral action or send American forces to Mexico.” »
But the inflammatory issue erupted again this week when Trump made provocative and off-the-cuff remarks.
“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? Trump said Monday, repeating a reporter’s question in the Oval Office. “It suits me.”
Trump has not revealed any specific plans for a U.S. attack. But he clearly contradicted his top diplomat’s optimistic assertions that Washington was happy with Mexico’s anti-drug efforts.
“Let me put it this way: I’m not happy with Mexico,” Trump said. “ALL RIGHT?”
Trump’s comments instantly spread across news channels, websites and social media platforms in Mexico, once again raising the specter of a unilateral and potentially destabilizing U.S. attack south of the border.
“Disgusted with Mexico,” headlined the newspaper El Diario de Yucatán on the front page, citing Trump’s displeasure.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum moved to assuage that concern, repeating his oft-repeated mantra: “Collaboration and coordination without subordination.”
The Mexican leader said she made the point repeatedly in phone calls with Trump, with whom she appears to have a collegial relationship, despite the political divide between the two: Sheinbaum, a left-wing, longtime scientist, and Trump, a conservative real estate baron turned politician.
The Mexican president says she repeatedly rejected Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops to the south to help fight drug traffickers.
“I told him at every opportunity that we could collaborate, that [the United States] can help us with the information they have, but that we are operating on our territory,” Sheinbaum said. “That we do not accept any intervention from a foreign government.”
Trump has long seemed obsessed with attacking cartels in Mexico. During his first term, Trump suggested to his then-Defense Secretary, Mark T. Esper, “We could just fire Patriot missiles and destroy the labs, silently,” according to Esper’s memoir, “A Sacred Oath.” Esper wrote that Trump said, “No one would know it was us.” »
The contentious issue of possible U.S. strikes has resurfaced at a sensitive time here, as opponents accuse Sheinbaum and his Morena party of running a “narco-government.” She called the accusations a political attack from right-wing enemies.
But the recent assassination of a regional mayor who accused Mexico City of being soft on cartels has sparked large-scale anti-government protests. Participants demand a crackdown on organized crime, responsible for the assassination of the mayor, Carlos Manzo, of the city of Uruapan, in the west of the country.
Polls have generally shown that Mexicans oppose any unilateral intervention by the United States, but are open to Mexican cooperation with the United States in combating organized crime.
Trump praised Sheinbaum as a “brave lady” but also said she was “so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight.”
Trump’s remarks Monday indicate the president is pleased with his administration’s controversial attacks on suspected drug shipping boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, strikes that have cost dozens of lives. Critics have denounced the strikes – among the most militaristic measures in Washington’s decades-long “war on drugs” – as extrajudicial killings.
The Trump administration views the strikes as an appropriate response to what U.S. officials describe as narcoterrorism.
“We have closed the shipping lanes,” Trump said Monday. “Land routes come next.”
This would seem to point to Mexico, the main land corridor for illicit drugs destined for the U.S. market. Mexico is both a major producer of synthetic drugs like fentanyl and amphetamines and a transit hub for northbound shipments of South American cocaine.
“We know every route,” Trump said of the smuggling corridors, which pose a clear threat to cartel leaders. “We know the address of every drug lord. … We know their front door. We know everything about each of them. They are killing our people. It’s like a war.”
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said he told Trump: “The last time the United States intervened in Mexico, it took half the time. [our] territory.”
She was referring to the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, now widely considered an expansionist strategy of the United States in the era of Manifest Destiny.
However, this is not the last American military offensive on Mexican territory. The tumultuous period of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) was marked by two operations south of the border.
In 1916-17, General John J. Pershing led the ill-fated “punitive expedition,” intended to find General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, the Mexican revolutionary whose forces had attacked the American city of Columbus. NMUS troops never found Villa, whose legendary status only grew stronger as he evaded capture.
In 1914, U.S. Marines and sailors invaded and occupied the port of Veracruz, apparently to block German arms deliveries to the government of Mexican President Victoriano Huerta. This occupation lasted six months.
These antagonistic episodes in U.S.-Mexico relations perhaps deserve little more than a footnote in some foundational texts of American history. But all Mexican children are schooled in what is taught as the harmful legacy of U.S. invasions and land grabs.
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed.
