Is Donald Trump plans to use the US military against drug cartels?

According to media reports, US President Donald Trump has announced that it is militarily against drug cartels from Latin American countries. According to a report by the “New York Times”, Trump instructed the Ministry of Defense to use military means against cartels that had been classified by Washington as “terrorist” organizations at the beginning of the year.

According to the “Wall Street Journal”, the use of special units and intelligence agents is up for debate. However, all measures would be coordinated with foreign partners.

The white house did not confirm the reports at first. However, vice spokeswoman Anna Kelly explained that Trump’s top priority was “the protection of the home country”. That is why he “took the brave step to classify several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations”.

In February, the US State Department put more than half a dozen Latin American drug cartels on its list of “terrorist” organizations, including the Mexican gang Cártel de Sinaloa and the criminal organization Tren de Aragua founded in Venezuela.

This implemented a decree that Trump signed on the day of his office on January 20. The cartels were described as a “threat to national security” by the United States, which goes beyond the dangers of “traditional organized crime”. The United States will provide “total wiping of these groups”.

The inclusion of an organization in the terrorist list of the US State Department means that the United States can impose massive economic sanctions against these groups as well as individuals and institutions associated with it.

The United States would have to start “treating the cartels as armed terrorist organizations, not only as drug trafficking organizations,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told EWTN. Due to the classification as terrorist organizations, “other components of American power” could now be used to fight these groups, including “secret services, the Ministry of Defense, whatever,” added Rubio.

At the beginning of March, Trump had already annoyed the southern neighboring country Mexico with the statement that Mexico was “completely dominated by criminal cartels, the murders, rape, torture and the total control” and “a serious threat to national security”.

According to the media reports on a possible US military mission against cartels on Friday, Mexico’s head of state Claudia Sheinbaum insisted that there will be “no invasion” in her country. “We cooperate, we work together”, but an invasion is excluded.

Mexico has been suffering from the violent drug cartels for many years. Since the start of a controversial military operation for drug fighting in 2006, almost 450,000 murders have been registered in the country. According to official information, a large part of the weapons from the United States used by criminal groups in Mexico came.