It is rare that from some corner of the White House we do not hear Donald Trump’s desire to definitively open the door to an intervention in Mexico. Directly or with euphemisms, such as “aid” or “military assistance” in the fight against organized crime. This Thursday it was the turn of Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the White House, who opted for a disturbing ellipsis when asked how far they are willing to go in Mexico. This time he spoke of “additional measures”, as well as recalling that “this is a promise from the president to the American people”. The day before, another bigwig, the influential White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, had been more explicit in comparing the current campaign against drug trafficking, or “narcoterrorism,” as they call it in Washington, with the offensive against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Trump himself said earlier in the week that he “would be OK” with launching attacks on Mexican soil like those he has ordered in the Pacific and Caribbean. President Sheinbaum responded to the Republican mogul, as she does every time there is an increase in tone from the White House. “It won’t happen,” the Mexican president said.
The latest attacks are spurred by voices other than the MAGA universe. Many of its spokesmen, from Steve Bannon to Alex Jones, took advantage of Saturday’s anti-government protests in Mexico to insist on toughness on the other side of the border. The spokesmen of Trumpism, in fact, share some of the most repeated slogans during the march, such as the one according to which Mexico is “a narco-government”. The Mexican executive has denounced that far-right international organizations are behind the protests, presumably spontaneous and led by young people.
Trump’s campaign against drug trafficking, very localized in three countries that are not exactly his allies in the region, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, has had a legal framework since the beginning of this year. In January, a decree declared a handful of criminal groups, including six Mexican mafias, to be terrorists. A measure which, on paper, opened the door to military interventions in the territory of third countries.
The White House has already sunk more than 20 suspected drug trafficking vessels in Caribbean and Pacific waters this year, resulting in at least 80 extrajudicial killings. In this context, Leavitt’s statements against Mexico and the “additional measures reserved by the president” had resonance on Thursday. The words of the White House spokesman began, as usual, with a compliment to Sheinbaum and then delivered the blow. “The president has been very cooperative in the fight against illegal immigration and drugs at the southern border. In any case, the president is very interested in taking additional measures. He has said it several times, he has been clear. It is a promise he has made to the American people. His national security team is discussing it.”
Miller, who is one of the voices who regularly describes Mexico as a state “run by criminal cartels”, expressed himself along the same lines. Along the same lines, he insisted that “the entire strip of our southern border, on the Mexican side, is under the control of these narco-terrorist organizations. What happens there, they decide and control. There is no issue more essential to national security than the dismantling of these organizations.” And he noted that “in the same way that the United States has used military forces and resources to go against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State,” the formula is applicable against “the cartels that in this hemisphere control territory, have their own forces and determine political outcomes by assassinating leaders at will to dominate entire governments.”
