Given the fentanyl crisis facing the United States, Trump and JD Vance threatened in their campaign to consider drug cartels as terrorist organizations, which would open the door to the entry of North American troops, however, the plan seems to go further. oh really.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, There is debate on Trump’s team about whether or not the president-elect should fulfill his campaign promise to attack or even invade Mexico.as part of the “war” that has been committed to waging against the powerful drug cartels,
“To what extent should we invade Mexico?” says a senior Trump transition team official. “That is the question,” the publication detailed.
According to section C of article 50 of the United States Code, it is mentioned that the powers of the President as Commander in Chief to introduce the United States Armed Forces are made only in three scenarios: a declaration of war, a specific statutory authorization or an emergency. national created by an attack on said country, although it must be authorized by Congress, which has a Republican majority.
Already during his first presidential term, Trump already showed himself in favor of attacking cartels outside of US territorybut his advisors shut down that idea, so it was never considered a real option.
However, since then, The rise of fentanyl, a powerful drug entering from Mexico, has caused an epidemic of overdose deaths in the United States.
Hence, during the campaign, there were various calls from Republican presidential candidates to bomb Mexico, or requests to send soldiers as a unilateral measure to stop illegal drug trafficking, which would be an act of war.
Meanwhile, according to Rolling Stone, A source close to Trump described what they call a “soft invasion” of Mexico, in which US special forces, not a large-scale deployment, would be sent to assassinate cartel leaders. In fact, it is a preliminary plan that Trump himself expressed enthusiasm for in private conversations this year.
The publication even described that during this presidential transition period, Trump has told his confidants and some Republican legislators that he plans to tell the Mexican government that they need to stop the flow of fentanyl to the United States in a short period of time, otherwise he will send the army US.
Among the voices supporting Trump is Senator Marco Rubio, whom the president-elect chose to serve as secretary of state.has supported the idea of sending US troops to Mexico to combat drug cartels, under the conditions that “there is cooperation from the Mexican government” and that said operations are carried out “in coordination with the Mexican armed forces and police.” .
While Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, whom Trump picked to run the Pentagon, said last year that it could be in the national interest to deploy military forces against Mexican drug cartels, which he referred to as “organizations of the type terrorist that poisons our population.”
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick for national security adviser, last year co-introduced legislation to create an Authorization for the Use of Military Force to attack Mexican drug cartels, stating that “would give the president sophisticated military cyber, intelligence and surveillance resources to disrupt cartel operations that are endangering Americans.”
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