Drug Cartels in Mexico: US declarations

By Red Latina

Agrowing number of prominent Republicans are joining the idea that to solve the fentanyl crisis, the United States must bomb it.

In recent weeks, Donald Trump has discussed sending “special forces” and using “cyber warfare” to attack cartel leaders if he is reelected president and, according to Rolling Stone, called for “battle plans” for attack Mexico. Representatives Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill that seeks authorization for the use of military force to “put us at war with the cartels.” Sen.Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he is willing to send US troops into Mexico to attack drug lords, even without that nation’s permission. And lawmakers from both houses have introduced legislation to label some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move supported by GOP presidential hopefuls.

“We need to start thinking of these groups more like ISIS than the mafia,” Waltz, a former Green Beret, said in a brief interview.

Not all Republican leaders are behind this approach. John Bolton, the third national security adviser to Trump who is considering his own presidential bid, said unilateral military operations “are not going to solve the problem.” And House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas), for example, “is still evaluating” the AUMF proposal “but is concerned about the immigration implications and the bilateral relationship with Mexico.” according to a Republican member of the panel.

But the eagerness of some Republicans to openly legislate or accept the use of the armed forces in Mexico suggests that the idea is taking firmer roots within the party. And it illustrates the ways in which frustration with immigration, drug overdose deaths and antipathy to China are defining the GOP’s broader foreign policy.

Nearly 71,000 Americans died in

2021 from overdoses of synthetic opioids, namely fentanyl, far more than the 58,220 US servicemen who died during the Vietnam War. And the Drug Enforcement Agency assessed in December that “most” of the fentanyl distributed by two cartels “is massproduced in secret factories in Mexico with chemicals sourced primarily from China.”

Democrats, for their part, are allergic to Republican proposals. President Joe Biden does not want to launch an invasion and has rejected the terrorist label of the cartels. His team argues that two executive orders issued have already expanded police authorities to attack transnational organizations.

“The administration is not considering military action in Mexico,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said. “Designating these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations would not give us any additional authority that we don’t already have.” Instead, Watson said the administration hopes to work with Congress to modernize Customs and Border Protection technologies and make fentanyl a Schedule I drug, which would impose the most stringent regulations on its production and distribution.

This article was publisehd by www.politico. com