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An NBC News report published on Tuesday suggests that the Trump administration is considering responding to drug cartels with military force, with the White House floating plans to work with — and without — the Mexican government’s cooperation.
The report relies on anonymous testimonies from six current and former military, law enforcement and intelligence officials, who told NBC News that they have direct knowledge of the discussions taking place. Those sources indicated that the discussions are still in their “early stages,” and that the administration has not reached a definitive consensus.
The discussions currently involve the White House, the Department of Defense, the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the report suggested.
Among the options being considered is launching numerous drone strikes on drug cartel epicenters within Mexico. The strikes could include the targeting of cartel figures and their logistical networks within the country.
Mexico and the U.S. have cooperated in the past to address the drug trade and cartel violence, but not to the degree the administration is currently contemplating, which would require a vast number of U.S. personnel and the use of drones to bomb cartels and their assets, the report stated.
Cooperation with Mexico appears to be desired by the administration. But the sources indicated that the White House is also considering using military force against cartels and Mexican citizens without the Mexican government’s consent — an action that would violate international law.
“There is no doubt if there were unilateral action inside Mexico, this would put the bilateral relationship into a nosedive,” said Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2013, in comments to NBC News about the revelations. “It would be put in a tailspin, as it would represent a violation of international law and an act of war.”
The administration is supposedly considering a unilateral approach as a “last resort” option.
Earlier this year, Trump labeled the cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and placed tariffs on Mexico for supposedly not doing enough to stop the drug trade into the U.S. Trump has also flirted with the idea of using the U.S. military to attack cartels inside Mexico, discussing the proposal briefly during his first term in office.
Other Trump administration officials — including U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — have expressed openness to using military force against the cartels, with both stating at separate points that “all cards are on the table.”
Critics have noted that the hawkish approach to dealing with cartels is not only impractical but risks killing thousands of Mexican civilians.
“If Trump’s plans to defeat cartels “involves a unilateral U.S. military operation on Mexican soil, the strategy is likely to backfire — not only straining diplomatic ties but also miring America in an unwinnable war,” Mexican journalist and news anchor León Krauze wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post in March.
Krauze warned that nearly 200,000 people in Mexico work for the cartels, and that many cartel locations are in populated areas, “making collateral damage a real possibility.”
Crime and drugs journalist Ioan Grillo, who is based in Mexico City, expressed similar sentiments in an op-ed in January, writing:
The problem with the call to bomb cartels is not only that it would inflame cross-border tensions, especially if civilians were killed, which could put American lives in danger of revenge attacks. It’s that it wouldn’t stop cartels. The cartels are not composed of a few arch villains who can be taken out. They are sprawling networks with look-outs, runners, gunmen, traffickers, “mules”, businessmen, accountants, and plenty of police, soldiers, prosecutors, and mayors on the payroll.
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