Tag: mexico

Trump ramps up push for U.S. strikes in Mexico as drug cartels fight each other

President Donald Trump has escalated his public calls for military action against the Mexican drug cartels as they face intense infighting and struggle to adapt to his military buildup at the southern border. Though Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has resisted direct American military intervention, Trump has renewed the push as the situation appears ripe for some kind of decisive action.

American troops have not been deployed to Mexico for combat purposes since 1916, in pursuit of Mexican bandit/revolutionary Pancho Villa following his attack on Columbus, New Mexico. Led by Brigadier General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing, the 10,000-strong expeditionary force failed to capture Villa and withdrew in 1917.

Sheinbaum, over the weekend, said that Trump had offered to deploy American military personnel to Mexico to help her combat the cartels, but that she had refused him.

“How can we help you fight drug trafficking? I propose that the United States military come in and help you,” she quoted him as saying. “And you know what I said to him? ‘No, President Trump.’” She further said that Mexican “sovereignty is not for sale” and that she had told him “we can work together, but you in your territory and us in ours.”

Trump himself confirmed that he had made the offer on Monday, but said “she is so afraid of the cartels she can’t even think straight.”

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Mexican Federal Agent Killed After Testifying in U.S. Trial of Drug Lord’s Son

A highly decorated Mexican federal police officer and his wife died during a targeted attack by gunmen in Mexico. The murder came just weeks after it became known that his testimony in a U.S trial had helped seal the fate of the son of the leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation. The drug lord’s son received a life term in prison.

Last week, authorities in Mexico confirmed the murder of  Ivan Morales and his wife as they travelled in their personal vehicle in Morelos State, about 100 kilometers away from Mexico City.

Mexican authorities are investigating the case. Politicians and pundits in Mexico have been quick to make the connection that Morales had been a key witness in last year’s U.S. trial against Ruben “El Menchito” Oseguera Gonzalez. El Menchito is the son of Mexico’s most violent cartel kingpin, Ruben Nemesio “El Mencho Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation. Earlier this year, El Menchito received a life sentence in prison for his role in his father’s criminal empire.

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Mexican Senator Brands President Sheinbaum as ‘Liar’ with Ties to Cartels

Mexican Senator Lilly Tellez (PAN-Sonora) blasted President Claudia Sheinbaum, demanding she “stop telling lies.” The senator accused her country’s president of having a close association with several lawyers who represent drug cartels during a fiery speech to the Mexican Senate.

The Senator representing the Mexican State of Sonora is routinely critical of President Sheinbaum’s seemingly soft approach to fighting organized crime in Mexico. Maria Lilly Del Carmen Tellez García, professionally known as “Lilly Tellez,” is a Mexican politician who was first elected as a senator in 2018 under the Morena Party. In 2019, Tellez left the Morena Party, and in 2020, she joined the National Action Party (PAN). She became an openly vocal critic of the Mexican government, often claiming with receipts that they are in bed with the cartels.

In June 2022, Breitbart Texas reported that the senator lashed out against the ruling party, saying, “How am I going to face off against the senator from Sinaloa, knowing she has all the support of the Gulf Cartel, and El Chapo’s Cartel?”

Tellez added, “How can we face off against you when you have the full support of the cartels, the mafia, knowing full well that once we get out of here we can be attacked by those criminals who are helping you to operate in the elections –this is having bravery and civic responsibility.”

Tellez stated that the decision to abandon the Morena Party was made when former President Manuel López Obrador, commonly referred to as AMLO, traveled to Badiraguato, Sinaloa, to shake hands with the mother of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in 2020. Before becoming a politician, Tellez was well-known as an investigative journalist for TV Azteca, Mexico’s second-largest mass media company.

As an investigative reporter, Tellez conducted several investigations involving the Arellano-Felix Cartel. She also produced two documentaries denouncing Samuel Del Villar, a government official from Mexico City, as corrupt. On June 22, 2020, her car was shot at eight times by a group of unknown men. She survived the attack without injury. A bullet was discovered to have hit her seat belt buckle and caused the trajectory of the bullet to change course, possibly saving her life. As is often the case in Mexico, no suspects were ever arrested, and the case was closed.

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Gulf Cartel Operates Alternative Government in Mexican Border City

With almost complete impunity, the Gulf Cartel expanded its control in Tamaulipas to the point where it operates as an alternative government in the border city of Matamoros. Through this control, all businesses, including food vendors, flower shops, and even panhandlers, are required to pay a weekly protection fee to the Gulf Cartel. The cartel operates a massive database of the city’s commerce and even uses city officials to collect the funds.

This control is very convenient for local and state politicians who enjoy the narco-peace of sorts that comes from simply allowing the Gulf Cartel to operate undisturbed in exchange for keeping violence down and hiding its presence in the shadows. This control, while currently being overlooked by Mexico’s federal government since political allies control Tamaulipas, could spell trouble since the Trump Administration labelled the Gulf Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

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EPA Chief Visits San Diego, Calls for Urgent Action on Border Sewage Crisis

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin visited San Diego April 22, aiming for collaborative solutions and actions to end the Tijuana River sewage crisis.

The visit “is very important for us to make sure that we aren’t just seeing and hearing firsthand on the ground in Southern California,” Zelding said at the press conference, “but ensuring that the path forward is one of max collaboration and extreme urgency to end a crisis that should have ended a long time ago.”

Zeldin said his counterpart, the Mexican environmental secretary Alicia Bárcena, had conveyed in their meeting the evening of April 21, the willingness of the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to “have a strong collaborative relationship” with the United States, “to finally solve the issue.”

The Tijuana River pollution has been ongoing for decades, but the crisis has worsened in recent years due to Tijuana’s rapidly growing population and the deterioration of its water treatment infrastructure.

Officials said that over the past five years, more than 100 billion gallons of sewage water have been discharged into the Tijuana River, which flows to the U.S. side and enters the Pacific Ocean, causing air odors, health concerns, and beach closures.

Amidst this, the Department of Defense inspector general found that some Navy SEAL candidates became ill while training in sewage-contaminated ocean water in San Diego’s South Bay.

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Two Mexican Nationals Busted in Colorado With 180,000 Rounds of Ammunition

Two Mexican nationals were arrested in Colorado last month after authorities found them transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition during a traffic stop, federal officials have announced.

Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, were pulled over on March 26th in Cañon City, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado.

Detectives from Fremont County stopped their white Chevrolet van after it failed to dim its headlights, didn’t signal a turn, and had a broken license plate light, according to an arrest affidavit.

Inside the van, authorities found around 150 boxes of .308 ammunition and 30 boxes of 7.62 ammunition, with each box labeled as holding 1,000 rounds.

Martinez Solis waived his right to an attorney and spoke with Homeland Security agents.

He explained that he and Amador Gavira, whom he identified as his brother-in-law, had traveled from Mexico to Denver the day before to look at a vehicle.

They then drove to Salt Lake City, where they stopped at a gun shop, and Amador Gavira bought the ammunition, according to the affidavit.

“[Martinez Solis] further explained that he did not know the intent with the ammunition but that he believed it was destined for Pueblo,” the affidavit stated.

He added that the exact location was saved on Amador Gavira’s phone. Authorities have not publicly disclosed the destination.

Both men have been charged with unlawful possession of ammunition by an alien admitted under a nonimmigrant visa.

The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

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CIA To Unleash ‘Finely Tuned Machine’ To Destroy Mexican Cartels

It was only a matter of time until the CIA became involved in the Trump administration’s war on Mexican drug cartels. According, and is formulating a ‘finely tuned machine’ to help disrupt one of the deadliest criminal networks in the world. 

Specifically, the CIA is establishing the Americas Counternarcotics Mission Center, combining its counternarcotics and Western Hemisphere teams to enable faster, more effective collaboration, CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis (formerly Rumble general counsel) told Breitbart, adding that the mission is to become a “finely tuned machine” to dismantle cartels, labeled foreign terrorists by the Trump administration. According to Ellis, the agency will leverage its 25 years+ of expertise in targeting jihadist networks to disrupt the cartels’ international operations.

“The drug trafficker is a savvy, sophisticated adversary,” the CIA official told the conservative publication. “[We’re] looking further upstream to identify those networks beyond our borders and dismantle them.”

“It’s a whole of government effort,” he added, before underscoring that the agency’s operations may remain covert due to their sensitive nature.

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Trump authorizes military to take control of federal land along southern border

President Trump issued a memorandum Friday authorizing the military to take control of federal lands along the southern border to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling. 

“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats. The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past,” Trump wrote in the memo issued to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Trump directed his Cabinet members to “take all appropriate actions” to “provide for the use and jurisdiction by the Department of Defense” over federal lands “that are reasonably necessary to enable military activities directed in this memorandum.” 

The president listed “border-barrier construction and emplacement of detection and monitoring equipment” as the activities that the military will engage in along the US-Mexico border but later noted that Hegseth “may determine those military activities that are reasonably necessary and appropriate to accomplish the mission assigned.” 

The mission is to “defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the US, as detailed in Trump’s Day One executive order on border security. 

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Trump threatens tariffs and sanctions on Mexico for ‘stealing’ water from Texas farmers

President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs, and possibly sanctions against Mexico, if it continues to rob South Texas farmers of Rio Grande water promised under a decades-old treaty.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump proclaimed that Mexico owes Texas 1.3 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 Water Treaty, though Mexico was violating their obligation.

“This is very unfair, and it is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly,” the president wrote. “Last year, the only Sugar Mill in Texas CLOSED, because Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas Farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed, but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help the Farmers. THAT ENDS NOW!”

Trump continued, saying he will make sure Mexico does not violate treaties with the U.S. and hurt farmers in Texas.

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Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels

The Trump administration is considering launching drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico as part of an ambitious effort to combat criminal gangs trafficking narcotics across the southern border, according to six current and former U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence officials with knowledge of the matter.

Discussions among White House, Defense Department and intelligence officials, which are still at an early stage, have included possible drone strikes against cartel figures and their logistical networks in Mexico with the cooperation of Mexico’s government, the sources said.

Still, the administration has made no final decision and reached no definitive agreement about countering the cartels. And unilateral covert action, without Mexico’s consent, has not been ruled out and could be an option of last resort, the sources said. It is unclear whether American officials have floated the possibility of drone strikes to the Mexican government.

If Mexico and the United States proceed together with drone strikes or other action, it would not be the first time they have launched a joint effort to take on the cartels, nor would it be the first time that American military and intelligence worked in concert with Mexico’s law enforcement and army.

But what the Trump administration is contemplating could be unprecedented both in the number of U.S. personnel involved and in the use of American unmanned aircraft to bomb cartel personnel and assets.

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