President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to crack down on drug cartel influence in the United States have turned to military force, according to sources familiar with the matter.
On Friday, The New York Times first reported that Trump had “secretly” assigned the Pentagon to begin using military force as a way to combat Latin American drug cartels, which the White House deemed as terrorist organizations.
Back in January, one of his first actions as Trump entered the White House for his second term was sign an action declaring certain cartels as national and global terrorist threats. A month later, the State Department acknowledged seven international cartels as enemies to the American public, declaring them foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.
Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that, through collaborative efforts with the Justice Department and State Department, a $50 million reward would be granted to anyone with information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela.
“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like TdA (Tren de Aragua), (Cártel de) Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” Bondi said. “He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security. Therefore, we’ve doubled his reward.”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil called the award “pathetic” and “crude political propaganda,” per The Associated Press.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, told the Times, “President Trump’s top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.”
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser said in an interview with the Catholic news outlet EWTN last week that marking drug cartels as terrorist groups gives the U.S. permission “to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever, to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it.”
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug-dealing organizations,” he added. Rubio also said that the Trump administration does not view “Maduro regime as (a) legitimate (government).”
Since the news of potentially using military force abroad to combat drug cartels, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said that it would not happen on her soil — where many cartel members have entered the U.S. border illegally.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” she said, per BBC. “We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”