Sheinbaum cites Mexican-American War as she rejects Trump’s cartel strike threats
MEXICO CITY — It may be okay for President Trump, but Mexico denies any U.S. attack on cartels on its territory.
That was the message echoed Tuesday by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly said her country will not accept U.S. attacks or troops on Mexican territory.
“This is not going to happen,” Sheinbaum told reporters at his daily press conference. “We cannot allow intervention”
Mexican officials appear convinced that the issue is resolved, especially after Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared last week that U.S.-Mexican counterdrug cooperation is at “an all-time high”: “We will not take unilateral action or go in and send American forces into Mexico.”
But the incendiary issue was reignited this week when Trump made some provocative, thoughtless statements.
“Would I start a strike in Mexico to stop drugs?” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office, repeating a reporter’s question. “That’s okay with me.”
Trump did not announce any specific plans for a US attack. But he was clearly at odds with his top diplomat’s optimistic claims that Washington was happy with Mexico’s anti-drug efforts.
“Let me put it this way: I’m not happy with Mexico,” Trump said. “OK?”
Trump’s comments instantly flashed across Mexican news channels, websites and social media platforms, once again raising the specter of a unilateral, potentially destabilizing US attack south of the border.
“I’m disgusted with Mexico,” read the front-page headline of El Diario de Yucatán newspaper, a reference to Trump’s distaste.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum moved to dispel the concern by repeating his oft-stated mantra: “Cooperation and coordination without obedience.”
The Mexican leader said he raised the issue repeatedly in phone calls with Trump, who appears to have a shared relationship with his colleagues despite the political divide between them: Sheinbaum, a lifelong leftist and scholar, and Trump, a conservative real estate baron-turned-politician.
The Mexican president said he repeatedly rejected Trump’s offers to send U.S. troops south to help fight drug traffickers.
“I told him we could collaborate at every opportunity. [the United States] “They can help us with the information they have, but we operate in our own region,” he said and continued: “We do not accept the intervention of any foreign government.”
Trump has long seemed focused on the idea of attacking cartels in Mexico. During his first term, Trump suggested to then-Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper, “We could drop a few Patriot missiles and quietly take out the labs,” according to Esper’s memoir, “A Sacred Oath.” Esper wrote that Trump said, “Nobody will know it’s us.”
The controversial issue of possible US strikes has resurfaced here at a sensitive moment, with opponents accusing Sheinbaum and the Morena party of running a “narco government”. He rejected the accusations as a political attack from right-wing enemies.
But the recent killing of the regional mayor, who accused Mexico City of being soft on the cartels, has sparked widespread anti-government demonstrations. Participants are demanding tough action against organized crime accused of the murder of Carlos Manzo, mayor of the western city of Uruapan.
Polls have generally shown that Mexicans oppose any unilateral US intervention, but are open to Mexico’s cooperation with the US in fighting organized crime.
Trump praised Sheinbaum as a “brave woman” but also noted that she was “so afraid of the cartels that she couldn’t think straight.”
Trump’s comments on Monday suggest the president is pleased with his administration’s controversial attacks on boats allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific, which have cost dozens of lives. Critics denounced the strikes as extrajudicial killings, among the most militaristic moves in Washington’s decades-long “War on Drugs.”
The Trump administration calls the attacks an appropriate response to what US officials call narco-terrorism.
“We have closed the sea lanes,” Trump said on Monday. “Next are the highways.”
This appears to point to Mexico as the mainland corridor for illicit drugs destined for the US market. Mexico is both a major producer of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and amphetamine and a transit hub for South American cocaine cargoes heading north.
Trump posed a clear threat to cartel leaders by saying “We know every route” about smuggling corridors. “We know the addresses of all the drug lords. … We know their front doors. We know everything about each of them. They’re killing our people. It’s like a war.”
On Tuesday, Mayor Sheinbaum said he told Trump: “The last time the U.S. intervened in Mexico, they took half of Mexico. [our] area.”
He was referring to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, which is now seen as an expansionist gamble by the United States in the era of Manifest Destiny.
However, this was not the last US military incursion into Mexican territory. There were two operations south of the border during the turbulent period of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20).
In 1916-17, General John J. Pershing headed the ill-fated “Punitive Expedition” aimed at tracking down Mexican revolutionary General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, whose forces had raided the US city of Columbus, New Mexico. U.S. troops never found Villa, whose legendary status only increased the more he evaded capture.
In 1914, U.S. Marines and sailors invaded and occupied the port of Veracruz, ostensibly to prevent German shipments to the government of Mexican President Victoriano Huerta. This occupation lasted six months.
These episodes of hostility in U.S.-Mexico relations may deserve little more than a footnote in some major U.S. history texts. But all Mexican children are being educated in what they are taught is the legacy of treacherous occupations and land grabs by the United States.
Trump has long seemed focused on the idea of attacking cartels in Mexico. During his first term, Trump suggested to then-Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper, “We could drop a few Patriot missiles and quietly take out the labs,” according to Esper’s memoir, “A Sacred Oath.” Esper wrote that Trump said, “Nobody will know it’s us.”
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed.
