The move comes after Trump called for a “war” on the cartels in early November when nine women and children from a Mormon community in northern Mexico were killed in a hail of gunfire. The victims were dual US-Mexican citizens.
US President Donald Trump (Photo: IANS)
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US will designate Mexican drug cartels as a foreign terrorist organisation.
On being asked about those cartels in Mexico as terror groups and start hitting them with drones during a radio interview, Donald Trump said, “I will be designating the cartels”.
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Trump said that he has been “working on that for the last 90 days”, Efe news reported.
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“You know, the designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process”, the US President said.
The move comes after Trump called for a “war” on the cartels in early November when nine women and children from a Mormon community in northern Mexico were killed in a hail of gunfire. The victims were dual US-Mexican citizens.
Mexico will also “seek a high-level meeting as soon as possible to present Mexico’s position” and hear Washington’s views, the foreign ministry said in an official translation of their statement.
Mexico will seek talks to “make progress with reducing the flow of arms and money from the United States to organized crime in Mexico, in addition to precursor chemicals and drug precursors that cross Mexican territory en route to the United States,” the statement read.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard responded to Trump’s statements, saying that the country “will never allow any actions that signify a violation of its national sovereignty. We will act firmly”.
The US has a long list of organisations it designates as terrorists, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian Territories’ Hamas, Colombia’s National Liberation Army and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The designation of cartels as terrorist organisations could lead to new sanctions, as well as the allocation of more resources to combat them.
Now breakaways from the official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which banned polygamy in 1891, they have lived in Mexico for generations.
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