Mexico will never tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty by the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum has warned after Washington designated Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
“This cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty,” the Mexican president said. “With Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”
Sheinbaum said her government was not consulted by the United States in its decision to include Mexican cartels on a list of global terrorist organizations, adding that she would propose a constitutional reform aimed at further protecting Mexico’s national sovereignty.
“The Mexican people will under no circumstances accept interventions, intrusions, or any other action from abroad that is detrimental to the integrity, independence or sovereignty of the nation … [including] violations of Mexican territory, whether by land, sea or air,” said Sheinbaum, speaking during her regular morning news conference on Thursday.
Sheinbaum’s comments marked an implicit rebuke for Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that Mexico has enabled a migrant “invasion” of the United States. They also reflected the troubled history between the two allied nations: US forces have invaded Mexico at least 10 times and in 1846 claimed nearly half of the country’s territory for the US.
Sheinbaum said she would also propose a second constitutional reform that would stiffen the penalties for Mexicans and foreigners who engage in arms trafficking. Most guns used in crimes in the country are trafficked from the United States.
She also repeated a pledge that Mexico would expand its legal action against US gun manufacturers, which her government accuses of negligence in the sale of weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers.
The lawsuit could lead to a new charge of alleged complicity with terrorist groups, Sheinbaum said.
Donald Trump’s decision targeting eight Latin American drug-trafficking groups – including several Mexican cartels – is the latest step in the US president’s intensifying crackdown on gang members.
The measure covers eight Mexican organized crime groups, including the two biggest factions, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, as well as MS-13, the Salvadoran gang founded in Los Angeles, and Tren de Aragua, a group rooted in Venezuela.
Mexico has long opposed the move, arguing the cartels are not motivated by political ends like others on the terror list, but by profit.
The designation could shift the legal landscape for US asylum claims, potentially hurting migrants who are forced to pay extortion or ransoms to cartels, as they could be accused of supporting a terrorist organization.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House saying that the cartels “constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime”.
The move has raised speculation about possible military action.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been given a prominent role in the Trump administration, suggested the designation “means they’re eligible for drone strikes”.
Since Trump returned to power, the US military has increased its airborne surveillance of the cartels along the border between the two countries, while the CIA has stepped up drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs – though Sheinbaum said that this was with Mexico’s permission.
