Why Latin Americans are embracing mano duro security policy

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly emphasized that she will not allow the US military to fight drug cartels within her country’s borders.

“It’s not going to happen,” Sheinbaum said last month after President Trump threatened such an operation. “We do not want any foreign government intervention”

But while Sheinbaum passionately defends his country’s sovereignty, recent polls and interviews from across Mexico show that significant numbers of people there welcome greater American involvement in their country’s fight against organized crime, including a U.S. entry into the field.

Just over half of Mexicans surveyed by pollster Mitofsky in question They believe that “US authorities should enter Mexican territory to combat organized crime and arrest its leaders.” One-third of survey respondents questionnaire El Financerio newspaper said they support the deployment of the US military to Mexico to fight the cartels.

“It’s such a shame to say that Mexico can’t do this alone,” said José Santillán, a 38-year-old graphic designer from Mexico City. “But the situation with the drug cartels is clearly out of control. A strong army is needed to confront them. And the United States has such an army.”

The US unleashed its military on suspected drug traffickers in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing at least 83 people. Trump and his team have been discussing for months the possibility of the United States launching attacks on suspected criminals and drug laboratories in Mexico.

“We know the address of every drug lord,” Trump said in November. He did not say whether he would launch a unilateral attack without Sheinbaum’s permission.

These threats anger many in Mexico, where resentment remains over past American occupations, including the 1846 war that resulted in Mexico ceding more than half of its territory, including California, to the United States.

But others here are so desperate for peace that they are ready to consider any proposal.

It’s been nearly two decades since Mexican soldiers were first deployed to confront the cartels; Today, drug trafficking continues at record levels, violence has spread to previously peaceful parts of the country, and crimes such as extortion have exploded.

“The scope of organized crime has expanded and affects a larger percentage of the population,” said political scientist Jorge Buendia.

Many Mexicans think their own authorities are too corrupt or too weak to combat organized crime.

“People want safety; vehicles are secondary,” Buendia said.

“People live in constant fear,” said 42-year-old Ricardo Marcial Pérez, who said people in his hometown of Guerrero state must pay protection fees to criminal groups, otherwise they face the risk of being killed. “Let the Americans come so that this hell that so many families in Mexico are going through can finally end,” he said.

Polls in the Americas show that many favor strict security strategies and support more punitive measures against suspected criminals. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has won fans regionally for his unforgiving approach to crime reduction: He has jailed tens of thousands of people he says are gang members without due process.

Carlos Manzo, a mayor in Mexico’s violent state of Michoacan, has gained a national following and drawn comparisons to Bukele by calling on local law enforcement to use lethal force against suspected criminals resisting arrest.

Manzo’s public killing by suspected cartel members last month drew condolences from senior Trump administration officials and made him a martyr throughout Mexico. For some here, his killing was another sign that only U.S. intervention can pull Mexico out of its security quagmire.

“U.S. assistance will be very helpful in eliminating all these problems,” said a public official in Michoacán, speaking on condition of anonymity. However, he warned that the scope of any aid from the United States should be limited: “We do not want a foreign invasion. We want them to help us.”

Americans have been involved in Mexico’s fight against organized crime for years; Here, large numbers of military, CIA and law enforcement agents are assigned to assist their Mexican counterparts with intelligence. Washington sent nearly $3 billion in security assistance under a 2007 bilateral agreement known as the Mérida Initiative; donated helicopters, trained police and helped redesign Mexico’s notorious justice system.

Sheinbaum’s predecessor as president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador left Mérida saying Mexico needed cooperation “for development” and not “in the use of force”.

López Obrador has sought to address poverty and other causes of violence under a strategy called “hugs not bullets” and has directed his military to mostly avoid direct conflict with the cartels. Sheinbaum maintained elements of this strategy but embarked on a tougher fight against organized crime. He also reignited cooperation with the Americans by sending dozens of suspected cartel members to the United States for investigation and granting access to Mexican airspace for U.S. surveillance drones.

In Sheinbaum, murder cases decreased, but reports of enforced disappearances increased. Crime remains a top concern there, with 75% of Mexicans saying they live in unsafe states, according to the 2025 census.

Some of Sheinbaum’s conservative critics embraced threats of American intervention. Opposition Senator Lilly Téllez applauded the White House’s designation of several Mexican cartels as “terrorist” groups; Trump aides said this paved the way for attacks, and he told Fox News he supported the US “sending troops and trying to help us Mexicans against the cartels.” Sheinbaum called him a traitor.

Relatives of missing persons at a memorial service in Mexico City on March 15, 2025.

(Gerardo Vieyra / NurPhoto / Getty Images)

Sheinbaum’s supporters say the United States has no commercial involvement in Mexico and they doubt the attacks will actually improve security.

The US-backed “ringleader strategy” adopted for years here, which calls for the killing or capture of drug lords, has been widely criticized for causing the cartels to split into smaller, rival groups and spiraling violence.

Michoacán, where Mexico first deployed troops in 2006 to dismantle cartels, now struggles with a patchwork of warring gangs and self-defense groups that fund their conflicts with high taxes from the lucrative lime and avocado industries.

A lime farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he heard gunshots in the distance while he was watering his trees. He and others are forced to pay criminals two pesos (about 10 cents) for every kilo of fruit they produce.

The grower said he was under the eye of the group that controls his area, but he was afraid of what would happen if an opposing group stepped in. He worries that Sheinbaum’s strategy isn’t strong enough.

“We cannot wait 50 years for a prevention or intelligence strategy,” said Yetici. “We should be more at the forefront” He said this includes limited US attacks.

Still, he said he was conflicted. Cartel hitmen were “not monsters” and certainly did not deserve to die. Many of them turned to crime due to poverty.

“That’s the dilemma,” he said. “We say zero tolerance. But are we really ready to pay through human lives?”

Protesters in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, demonstrated last month against violence in Mexico and the assassination of Carlos Manzo.

(Gerardo Vieyra / NurPhoto / Getty Images)

Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Olson from special correspondent Apatzingán. Cecilia Sánchez from The Times’ Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.