Mexico has opposed Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to intervene in its neighbor’s territory under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has patiently rejected, time and time again, in a firm but measured tone, the US president’s continued offers for the US military to conduct operations beyond its borders to subdue drug cartels.
“It’s not that we don’t want support, but not with foreign troops,” the president reiterated Tuesday, recalling that the last time the United States entered Mexico, “they took half the territory.” Sheinbaum is strengthening his position while continuing to engage in diplomatic balancing acts in the face of Trump’s attacks, which call into question the Mexican government’s security strategy, in what increasingly appears to be an affront to its sovereignty.
Since Trump first mentioned sending troops to Mexico during his second presidential campaign, the country has been preparing to counter any hint of interference in its security policy. Even after announcing his intention to run for re-election in 2024, the Republican repeatedly said that, if necessary, he would be ready to send the US military across the border to fight drug cartels. Sheinbaum has consistently countered the American president’s threats. However, Trump’s rhetoric has intensified as he steps up his aggressive foreign policy with extrajudicial attacks on suspected drug traffickers and flexes his muscles in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean. These operations put him at odds with Gustavo Petro’s government in Colombia and further strained relations with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Now Mexico must face the ever-present specter of US interventionism.
To counter his counterpart’s bluster, Sheinbaum simply repeated his solution like a mantra: sovereignty, cooperation and collaboration. Sheinbaum has agreed to exchange intelligence between the two countries to run joint operations against drug cartels, but is unwilling to cede control of operations on Mexican soil.
“(Trump) has suggested this on several occasions, saying, ‘We offer you U.S. military intervention in Mexico, everything you need to fight criminal groups.’ But I told them every time that we can collaborate, that they can help us with any information they have, but that we operate in our territory”, is the gist of the Mexican president’s response to Trump’s insinuations, which began last February when he declared the cartels terrorist organizations. “We will never be subordinate. Mexico is a free, sovereign and independent country and we do not accept interference,” he said at the time.
However, Trump has not wavered in his offer, which has become a challenge to Sheinbaum’s composure in the face of pressure from domestic opposition to allow the United States to address Mexico’s security crisis and the growing frustration of a society plagued by violence. Earlier this year, Mexico’s concessions – sending 10,000 troops to the border to tighten immigration controls and the extradition of cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero – not only quelled the trade war but also temporarily quieted calls for military intervention.
The calm lasted until May, when The Wall Street Journal It was reported that during a phone call between the two presidents on April 16, Trump pressured Sheinbaum to accept U.S. military assistance and take a harder line in his security policy.
“No, President Trump,” Sheinbaum said, reiterating his proposal for a collaborative approach. “You on your territory, we on ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the US military on our territory,” he said.
Trump said the president’s refusal of her help was because she was paralyzed by fear of the drug traffickers who control her country. “If Mexico wanted help against the cartels, we would be honored to do it,” boasted the Republican leader.
But Sheinbaum refused to engage. “It’s not worth it,” he responded, adding that he didn’t want to engage in a public spat with the president of the United States. “Why create a disagreement?” he asked.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Mexico in September, which coincided with the start of operations to sink vessels suspected of drug trafficking, solidified the bridge of collaboration that Sheinbaum had built to combat drug trafficking. “No government works with us more than the Mexican government,” Rubio said, citing as an example the extradition of 55 high-level Mexican drug traffickers to the United States.
Since then, Rubio has stepped in to soften Trump’s statements whenever Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest of intervention, as happened last Tuesday. When the president declared his willingness to replicate attacks on ships suspected of carrying drugs with land raids against Mexican cartels, Rubio was quick to tone down his rhetoric. “We’re willing to give them as much help as they want. Obviously they don’t want us to take — we’re not going to take unilateral action or go send American forces into Mexico, but we can help them with equipment, with training, with intelligence sharing, with all kinds of things that we could do if they asked for it,” Rubio stressed, noting that Mexico would first have to formally request such assistance. Sheinbaum has indicated that she is willing to accept this type of support.
In his latest rejection of Trump’s offer, Sheinbaum expressed his exasperation by raising historical resentment over how Mexico had to cede 55% of its territory 175 years ago following U.S. intervention. While Trump continues to insist that he would be proud to order the US military into Mexico, as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has proposed, according to Washington PostSheinbaum firmly argued that this possibility does not exist. Analysts back her, saying intervention is still a very distant prospect and would not serve U.S. interests, as Americans do not want to see troops deployed abroad, much less severe relations with their southern neighbors.
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