Sheinbaum Says US Military Won’t Operate in Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said U.S. troops would not conduct military operations within Mexico, amid reports that President Donald Trump has directed U.S. forces to take actions to disrupt cartel operations throughout Latin America.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military. We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion,” Sheinbaum said at an Aug. 8 press conference. “That is ruled out. Absolutely ruled out.”

Sheinbaum’s comments came hours after The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that Trump secretly directed U.S. military action against Latin American cartels that his administration previously designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment concerning Trump’s reported order authorizing military action against the cartels but did not receive a response by publication time.

In February, the U.S. State Department formally labeled the Sinaloa cartel, the Gulf cartel, the Jalisco New Generation cartel, the United cartels, the La Nueva Familia Michoacana organization, and the Northeast cartel as foreign terrorist organizations. The administration also applied the terror label to the El Salvador-based gang known as Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, as well as the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua.

In May, the State Department also listed the Haitian criminal organizations Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as foreign terrorist organizations.

While not directly confirming a Trump administration plan to employ military force against Latin American cartels, Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed using a variety of new authorities against the cartels in an Aug. 7 interview with EWTN.

On the administration’s decision to designate certain cartels as transnational criminal organizations, Rubio said new terrorism designations allow the U.S. government “to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever … to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it.”

“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug-dealing organizations,” Rubio added.

During his interview with EWTN, Rubio said some cartel activity comes as an extension of Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government, which the U.S. government does not recognize as legitimate. This week, the U.S. Department of Justice doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, from $25 million to $50 million.

This is not the first time Trump has allegedly floated the idea of using U.S. military capabilities on Latin American cartels and criminal enterprises. Sheinbaum, in May, said she rejected an offer from Trump to place U.S. troops in her country.

“You know what I told him? ‘No, President Trump, the territory is inviolable. Sovereignty is inviolable,’” Sheinbaum told a press conference on May 3.

She made those public comments after The Wall Street Journal reported, based on anonymous sources, that Trump had offered a U.S. military deployment to Mexico to take a leading role in efforts to counter the cartels.