Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Mar 18, 2023, 12:52 pm EDT
The crisis facing the United States for the use of fentanyl continues to grow, which has prompted calls for the Mexican government to take tougher measures against this situation. Added to this, the kidnapping of four US citizens in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, strained bilateral relations. In this vein, Mike Pompeo asked to use drones to combat the Mexican cartels.
The statements of the former Secretary of State in the mandate of Donald Trump caused a stir among Mexicans, since the former official said that this should be done with or without the consent of the Mexican government. Pompeo wrote the above in an article published in the American Center for Law and Justice, in which he also lashed out at the administration of current US President Joe Biden.
“We can secure our border and better protect the American people from drug cartels. That’s why, As Secretary of State, I suggested that we use drones to attack the cartels.”, wrote.
Pompeo considered that if the diplomatic channel is not enough, other actions must be taken, since The Mexican government cannot or does not want to deal with the problem facing both countries. He added that the cartels are shipping more of their deadly products because they know the “Biden administration is weak and is not serious about defending America’s borders.”
He said that it is likely that criminal organizations dedicated to drug trafficking are behind the massive waves of migrants arriving through the southern border. “If we want to address both the immigration crisis and the opioid epidemic that has claimed the lives of so many people, the best thing we can do is secure our border and go after the cartels,” the former official said.
“The Mexican government is not up to the task”
In that same sense, the former secretary of state said that they know where the cartels are and what they are doing, so they must protect the American people from them. He pointed out that fighting such criminal groups with sanctions and financial wars is not enough.
“We should know that the mexican government is not up to the task of taking on the cartels, for it has lost or abdicated control of vast portions of its own country. His total lack of sovereignty was made clear when four Americans were kidnapped and two killed by the Gulf cartel”, he expressed in the text.
As other voices have called for, Pompeo said that “the US government should target the major drug cartels: the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartelhe Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), among others, as foreign terrorist organizations”.
Of the Biden administration, Pompeo said that “it is prioritizing diplomatic engagement and cooperation with Mexico over saving American lives. How exactly is this cooperation and compromise helping the United States? Where the Trump administration’s cooperation with Mexico yielded good results, such as the Stay in Mexico agreements.”
Finally, he said that “really confronting these vicious narcoterrorist organizations requires the full spectrum of American power. It will require going after Chinese Communist Party-backed entities that are funneling precursor compounds to the cartels,” which is why he believes cartels should be crushed, not just prosecuted.
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