(Newswire.net — November 29, 2019) — US President Donald Trump said he would declare Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations for their role in drug and human trafficking.
The move means that the US will have the opportunity to expand its actions against the cartel, and Trump’s goal is to defeat these groups altogether.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry, however, has said it is an internal affair and Mexico will not allow America to violate the country’s sovereignty.
The Trump decision follows a massacre that happened on November 4 in northern Mexico when cartels killed three women and six Mormon children, according to the BBC.
Trump was asked Tuesday whether he plans to declare the cartels terrorist groups and start attacking them with drone strikes. The President replied that this was planned and that it would take 90 days to end the cartels entirely. The US president also said that he told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the US was willing to launch anti- cartel operations inside Mexico.
What will this mean?
When a group is declared a terrorist organization in the US, it is forbidden for nationals to support it in any way. Its members are also no longer able to enter the United States, and if already in its territory they will be deported.
If it is discovered that someone is financing the group, a blockade of money is ordered and the Ministry of Finance is immediately notified.
Experts believe that the supply of cartels originating in the United States will be affected in this way. During this year, the US government released a study stating that more than 150,000 weapons from US factories were linked to Mexican cartels.
The anti-terrorism law also stipulates that anyone who buys US weapons for cartels will face harsher legal penalties.
On the other hand, some experts also believe that Trump’s decision could complicate negotiations between the cartels and the Mexican government.
How did Mexico respond?
Foreign Minister Marselo Ebrard said Mexico has made it clear that it is rejecting the US bid and will not allow a breach of sovereignty. He also added that Mexico is committed to monitoring organized crime.
Ebrard, however, said that this will be discussed with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mexico, he said, wants to introduce measures to reduce the flow of money and weapons from the US to the cartels and make efforts to prevent the movement of drugs across its territory to the US.
President Manuel López Obrador said his country would not accept foreign intervention against the cartels.
How powerful are cartels?
Mexico’s brutal drug cartel war has claimed tens of thousands of lives so far. In 2017 alone, more than 30,000 people were killed in the country, and the homicide rate has tripled since 2006.
Powerful groups of smugglers fight for dominance in key territories. Also, cartels control large territories, and they are also responsible for political corruption, murders and kidnapping.
Earlier this week, at least 12 police officers were killed in an ambush in the western state of Michoacán. The attack is believed to have been carried out by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
In an incident in October, thousands of Sinaloa cartels surrounded the Culiacan security forces, and then took them hostage, forcing the government to release the arrested Ovidio Guzman, son of Joaquin Guzman, El Chapo.
The Sinaloa Cartel has been described by the US government as one of the largest in the world.
Former leader Joaquin Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in July. Despite this, this cartel still earns billions from their drug trade and gun trafficking.
The Jalisco Cartel earns more than $ 20 billion and is one of the main suppliers of synthetic drugs on the continent.
Although there is a precise definition on what terrorism means and who terrorists are, the US government has a history of declaring terrorists groups around the world in order to fight terrorism outside of US borders. Of course, once proclaimed as terrorists some organizations in the same country can be easily declared as “freedom fighters” if it serves the interests of Washington.
One such case is deleting the KLA (Kosova Liberation Army) from the terrorist organisation list, Albanian nationalists which operated in the southern province of Serbia (Former republic of Yugoslavia). KLA operated similarly to drug cartels in Mexico. They were a major producer and distributor of narcotics in EU. Now, a new state Kosovo is completely under the control of the CIA, and hosts Bondstil, the largest US military base in EU.
One way or another, the fact is the production of narcotics is unlikely to be defeated because the demand is too high and it generates trillions of dollars. The only thing that ever changes is the organization that controls it.