President Donald Trump is planning to drastically ramp up his illegal drug war by deploying troops to Mexico, where they will operate under the CIA to conduct operations against cartels.
According to NBC News, the White House is still in the early stages of developing the operations. Sources who spoke with the outlet said the deployment was not imminent and that no final decision had been made.
The current plans being drawn up involve drug strikes on suspected drug labs.
“The US troops, many of whom would be from Joint Special Operations Command, would operate under the authority of the U.S. intelligence community, known as Title 50 status, the two current officials said,” NBC explained. “They said officers from the CIA also would participate.”
In August, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum vowed to defend her country’s sovereignty following a report in the New York Times that President Donald Trump had authorized the military to take military action against cartels.
“We will never put our sovereignty at risk, we will never put Mexico’s independence at risk, Mexico is a free, sovereign, independent country,” she said. “We collaborate, we coordinate on security matters and others, but we never subordinate ourselves, and we will never, ever allow the US army or any other institution of the US to set foot in Mexican territory ever.”
The report comes as Trump is ramping up strikes on alleged drug smugglers and threatening regime change in Venezuela. The Department of War has conducted lethal strikes against at least 15 vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing dozens.
The US has also engaged in a massive military buildup in the Caribbean, and administration officials have threatened Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. On Friday, the Miami Herald said Trump had decided to begin bombing military targets inside Venezuela.
A senior administration official said that the planned operations in Mexico show “the Trump administration is committed to utilizing an all-of-government approach to address the threats cartels pose to American citizens.”
While Caracas is in Trump’s crosshairs, there is no evidence linking Maduro to cartels, and Venezuela is a minor drug trafficking country with no ties to the fentanyl trade.
