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US President Donald Trump announced Thursday that American forces would begin ground operations in Mexico targeting drug cartels, following months of naval strikes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean.
“We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said in an interview with broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News.
Trump provided no additional information on the timing or scope of the planned land attacks.
Any military strikes on Mexican territory without Mexico City’s consent would violate international law and mark an unprecedented attack on a US ally and major trading partner.
The statement follows Saturday’s Delta Forces-led capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro at a Caracas compound where he was sheltering, the culmination of an extended US military and economic campaign against his government. Maduro now faces drug trafficking charges in New York.
US strikes on narcoboats have resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people since September, according to US officials. Trump has also recently revealed that US forces struck a docking facility for such boats in Venezuela.
The naval campaign has targeted vessels suspected of smuggling cocaine and fentanyl in international waters and near Venezuela’s coast. Trump has described the operations as enforcing a blockade on drug trafficking.
What would be the target of anti-cartel operations?
Ground strikes on cartels in Mexico would represent a substantial expansion of US military involvement in the region.
Mexico’s two most powerful criminal organisations, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, control vast territories and have been locked in violent competition that killed more than 30,000 people last year.
Trump designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organisations in February 2025, a move Mexico condemned as threatening its sovereignty and potentially justifying military intervention.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has proposed constitutional reforms to strengthen protections against unauthorised foreign operations and has consistently rejected any US military presence on Mexican soil.
Sheinbaum said Monday that the Americas “do not belong” to any single nation, responding to Trump’s assertion of Washington’s “dominance” over the hemisphere after Maduro’s capture.
Trump said Sunday he has pressed Sheinbaum to allow deployment of US troops against Mexican cartels, an offer he said she previously rejected.
Overdoses from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have caused more than 100,000 deaths in the US per year since 2021. Mexican cartels produce most of the fentanyl entering the US using chemical precursors sourced primarily from China.
Trump designated the drug as a weapon of mass destruction in December 2025.
It remains unclear whether Trump would seek Congressional authorisation for strikes in Mexico. The US constitution grants Congress authority to declare war, although presidents have historically launched military operations without formal declarations.
Additional sources • AP
