United States President Donald Trump has indicated that his administration is preparing to expand military operations against drug cartels to include land-based strikes, following recent maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The POTUS threatened to carry out military strikes on Mexican soil to target drug cartels, said the elections in Venezuela will only happen after his plan to “rebuild the country,” and suggested his own morality, not international law, served as the only check on his power, in two separate interviews with the New York Times and Fox News released on Thursday night.
Speaking during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night, he said “We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels,” he said, adding that criminal groups have gained extensive control in Mexico.
Any direct action against cartels inside Mexico, however, would represent a major escalation of US military involvement in the region. Trump said on Sunday that he was pressing Sheinbaum to allow US troops to operate in Mexico against drug cartels, an offer he claimed she had previously rejected.
However, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum warned on Monday that the Americas “do not belong” to any single power, responding to Trump’s comments about Washington’s “dominance” of the hemisphere following Maduro’s capture.
The comments come in the aftermath of the surprise capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro last weekend, an operation that followed months of sustained U.S. military and economic pressure on Caracas.
As part of the broader campaign, U.S. forces have reportedly carried out more than 100 strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels since September.
Trump also disclosed that American forces had conducted a land strike on a docking facility in Venezuela allegedly used by drug traffickers.