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President Donald Trump has reportedly directed the Pentagon to use military force against drug cartels in Latin America, marking an extreme escalation that could further isolate the U.S. and cause more global instability.
The New York Times first reported the directive on Friday, citing sources familiar. The details of the order are scant, but the military has reportedly begun exploring options for going after certain cartels, sources said.
The Times reports that the order “provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels.” Reuters confirmed the existence of the order, but said that military action is not imminent.
The order comes after the Trump administration designated several cartels as global terrorist organizations. Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to identify cartels — including ones that may not be involved in drug trading — as foreign or global terrorist groups.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday in a press conference that the designation gives them “legal authorities to target them in ways you can’t do if they’re just a bunch of criminals.”
Though it’s unclear how the Trump administration intends to deploy the military, Rubio specifically named Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, and Guatemala as places that targeted gangs supposedly operate in his press conference. The Trump administration also announced on Thursday that the U.S. is increasing an award for arresting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum quickly condemned the report, saying that she would not allow the U.S. to deploy troops in Mexico. The U.S. has already increased covert airborne surveillance of Mexico in recent months, including with a CIA-run drone program that began under the Biden administration.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military. We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out,” she said in a press conference, per the Times. “It is not part of any agreement, far from it. When it has been brought up, we have always said no.”
Experts have previously said that using military force in Trump’s supposed crackdown on gangs is extremely risky. Analysts have said that it would only create more unrest that could harm civilians and potentially even embolden cartels to use lethal force against U.S. enforcement and military officials.
The U.S. has a long history of attempts to use military force in Latin America in supposed attempts to combat the drug trade; such attempts also have ties to the U.S.’s anti-communist efforts. Indeed, the fact that both Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi identified Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as the top drug trafficker indicates that a goal of this campaign is “regime change.”
The chaos and unrest potentially caused by U.S. military intervention may be Trump’s goal, however. Trump ran on a platform of ending wars — a platform that warped into a message of “peace through strength” when he took office. Instead, Trump’s goal seems to be to send the world a message that the U.S. is untouchable, through unprovoked strikes and an even larger military force — while wantonly authorizing military action no matter the civilian impacts on people across the globe.
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