Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has flatly denied reports that the United States is planning to send troops into Mexico to confront the country’s powerful cartels, noting that she had repeatedly rejected such offers from Donald Trump.
“It’s not going to happen,” Sheinbaum said during her daily morning news conference on Tuesday. “We do not agree with any process of interference or interventionism.”
Sheinbaum’s comments come after a report from NBC News citing current and former US officials that the Trump administration has started planning a mission to send US troops and intelligence officers into Mexico.
The report said that although the operation was not imminent and no final decision had been made, the early stages of training had already begun as well as discussions about the scope of the operation.
The report also indicated that US troops would operate under the authority of the US intelligence community, and that officers from the CIA would also participate.
But Sheinbaum was insistent that her country had “no information” about such a planned incursion, although she admitted that in phone calls with Trump, the US president had offered to send troops and other support to confront organized crime.
“I’ve always said thank you very much, President Trump. But no, Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country,” Sheinbaum said.
Mexico and the US have long collaborated in tackling drug-trafficking groups, with the US at times sending CIA, military and Drug Enforcement Administration operatives to support Mexico’s efforts to combat organized crime.
But the incursion of US troops into Mexico to directly confront the cartels, particularly without Mexico’s agreement, would be an unprecedented step that would almost certainly fracture an already tenuous bilateral relationship.
The Trump administration has made confronting drug-trafficking groups a central pillar of its foreign policy: in February, Washington designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
It has also launched a series of attacks against alleged drug-trafficking boats, most recently striking vessels in the eastern Pacific that killed 14 alleged traffickers in late October.
Although Mexico rescued one of the survivors from the attack, Sheinbaum condemned the strikes and ordered officials from her government to discuss them with the US ambassador to Mexico.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum also noted that Mexico had reached a security agreement with the United States that was negotiated over several months.
“We are going to continue working within this framework of understanding, which has very clear principles … which respects our sovereignty and our territoriality.”
The Mexican president has also appeared cooler on militarised anti-narcotics tactics than her predecessors: on Monday, she ruled out any changes to the country’s security strategy despite the recent brutal killing of a mayor in western Mexico.
“Some are calling for militarization and war, as happened with the war on drugs,” Sheinbaum said. “That didn’t work.”
