WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has vowed to “wage war” on Mexico’s drug cartels, accusing them of rape, murder, and posing a severe national security threat. In his first address to Congress since returning to power, Trump declared, “The cartels are waging war on America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing.”
His statement came just hours after he imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, citing insufficient progress in curbing the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the US.
Cracking down on gang violence and undocumented immigration remains a central priority of the Trump administration, which recently designated several Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. “The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture, and exert total control,” Trump told Congress. “They have complete control over an entire nation, posing a grave threat to our national security.”
Under mounting US pressure, Mexico extradited 29 alleged drug traffickers to the US last week. However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected Washington’s accusations of an “intolerable alliance” between the Mexican government and drug cartels, calling them “slander.”
“They want to make us happy. First time ever,” Trump said, referring to the extradition. “But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the US.”
Last month, Sheinbaum firmly rejected any suggestion of US military action against cartels, stating, “With Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.” She recently deployed an additional 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico border in an effort to combat cartel activity.