As the Republican primary campaign for the 2024 presidential race progresses, threats by candidates to launch military attacks against Mexican drug cartels it set off alarms on both sides of the border.
In the party’s election debate last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, polling a long way behind former President Donald Trump, said that in the event of reaching the White House will send the US military to dismantle Mexican drug laboratories “on day one.”
(Also read: Father of Daniel Sancho, confessed murderer of a Colombian, makes a strong warning about the case).
“Drug cartels are killing tens of thousands of our citizens, we have every right to do it”, was justified afterwards.
Trump, who did not participate in the debate, is one of the candidates who has most defended these attacks.
Rolling Stone magazine recently reported that he has asked his advisers for military “battle plans” against Mexico if he wins a second term next year. Three other candidates, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, have also endorsed the idea.
Haley, former US ambassador to the UN, He said Washington must deal with Mexican traffickers as it does with the Islamic State jihadist group. “We can do it by deploying special operations there… just as we treat IS, the same should be done to the cartels,” he said.
Foreign policy experts warn that these calls, which pose a dangerous threat to Washington’s always tense relationship with Mexico, must be taken seriously.
“It’s crazy,” Arturo Sarukhán, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States and now at the Brookings think tank in Washington, told AFP.
increased fentanyl
These attacks are not a new idea. During his presidency (2017-2021), Trump was already in favor of attacking cartels outside of the United States.
But apparently his aides talked him out of it, and it was never considered a real option.
(Keep reading: Woman abandoned by her son in the Darién jungle gives her version: “He tried to kill me”).
What has changed since then has been the rise of fentanyl, a potent drug that comes in from Mexico. and which has caused an epidemic of overdose deaths in the United States.
Sarukhán affirms that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reduced cooperation with US authorities on drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
As a result, Republicans are calling for drone strikes and nighttime raids like the ones US forces have carried out against jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria and Somalia, with little diplomatic consequence.
Last year, a Trump-aligned thinktank, The Center for Renewing America, published a policy white paper saying that if Mexico City does not stop the fentanyl trade, the president should directly mobilize the US military: “The goal is to crush the cartel networks with full military force.”
Congressional Republicans proposed in January that the president have formal war powers to command US troops to act against Mexican drug gangs.
And in March, Republicans introduced legislation to designate nine cartel groups as “foreign terrorist organizations.”a distinction that increases the president’s ability to use the military against them.
bragging
Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group said the remarks should not be dismissed as electoral bluster.
“The stance carries real risks,” Finucane wrote in July, including a radical breakdown of cooperation between Mexico and Washington that could further threaten US security.
“Such maneuvering in Congress and bellicose on the campaign trail increases the likelihood that a future president may consider such an attack a real option.”
When talk of military action surfaced among Republicans earlier this year, López Obrador called it “irresponsible” and “disrespectful” of Mexico’s sovereignty.
“We are not going to allow the intervention of any foreign government, much less the armed forces of a foreign government,” he said.
Sarukhón said that this position of the Republicans stems from a “perfect storm”: the combination of a patriotic rise in the electoral race next year and the weakening of cross-border collaboration by López Obrador.
(We recommend: Another Colombian died in the war between Ukraine and Russia: he was the father of two children).
The rhetoric of the debate was obviously “bait” for voters, Sarukhán said. However, he added, “I think deep down, (the candidates) do believe what they say.”
An attack against Mexico would not be viewed in the same light as an anti-terrorist attack. against ISIL abroad,” he said.
In that case, Mexico would do even less to stem the flow of migrants and drugs to the United States.
Mexico City is also likely to scale back intelligence sharing and blow up core bilateral issues like water-sharing pacts. “It is an act of war and a violation of international law,” Sarukhán explained.
AFP
#Alert #threat #Republican #precandidates #attacks #drug #traffickers #Mexico