A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).
The United States has ordered the deployment of air and naval forces to the Southern Caribbean Sea to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, Reuters reported on August 14, citing two sources briefed on the decision.
“This deployment is aimed at addressing threats to U.S. national security from specially designated narco-terrorist organizations in the region,” one of the sources said.
The administration of President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to crackdown on drug cartels. Last February, it designated Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and other drug gangs as well as Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua as global terrorist organizations.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the administration was considering the idea of using the military to go after the designated cartels.
On August 7, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio openly stated that the administration could use the military to go after cartels.
“It allows us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever… to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it,” Rubio said. “We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations.”
A Reuters report released the very next day revealed that the Pentagon was ordered by the administration to prepare options.
Another report by The New York Times from August 8 alleged that Trump had secretly signed a directive to begin using military force against the groups.
On the very same day, the U.S. announced that it had doubled the reward for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from to $50 million.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro, a long time opponent of the U.S., of being the world’s biggest drug trafficker and of working with cartels to smuggle fentanyl-laced cocaine. No evidence backing these accusations was presented, however.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said that the new reward was “pathetic” and went on to label it “political propaganda”.
The situation in Mexico is different, however. Under the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican government vowed to ramp up efforts to disrupt drug flows into the U.S., showing more willingness to comply with demands from Trump to avoid tariffs threatened by his administration.
On August 12, the U.S. took custody of 26 alleged cartel members who were expelled by Mexico under a deal with the Trump administration.
The Justice Department said in a statement that the individuals are facing a range of federal and state criminal charges from around the country, including drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, and money laundering.
“These 26 men have all played a role in bringing violence and drugs to American shores — under this Department of Justice, they will face severe consequences for their crimes against this country,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi, thanking Mexico’s National Security team for their collaboration.
Reuter’s latest report came as an MQ-9 Guardian drone operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection was spotted flying deep into Mexico.
The drone reportedly took off from an air base in the state of Texas and flew more than 1,200 kilometers south, including about 900 kilometers deep into Mexican airspace, according to data provided by FlightRadar24. The drone conducted several orbits in an area in the southern state of Mexico, where several cartels are known to be active.
The head of Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, later said that the drone was operating at the behest of the Mexican government.
The U.S. military could deal a major blow to drug cartels. However, the excessive use of force could have serious repercussions.
Cartels in Mexico are well-armed and have extensive influence within the criminal circles in the U.S. These factors along with the fact that the use of deadly force by the U.S. against Mexican citizens will be perceived by many in the country as an aggression could lead to a cross-border conflict, or even worse.
The situation with Venezuela is even more complicated for the U.S. military due to the state of hostility between the two countries. In fact, the U.S. appears to be using the war on drugs as a means to pressure the government there and intervene in the country. This won’t be easy, however, as the Venezuelan military is heavily-armed.
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… and it’s obvious that this “again” is “not” what it appears to be. just like the taliban’s removal of the opium in afghanistan prior to 9/11 that led to the u.$. army’s black ops for langley’s restoration thereafter post invasion, that now includes child trafficking and involuntary organ donations. “ain’t that america”!… “somethin to see baby”… “home of the freee-ak!… little pink houses in mena arkansas “for you and me”!…
southfront southcensorship southfront southcensorship southfront southcensorship
a wholly owned subsidiary llc of nsa inc.
you realise what the word censorship means right? could you provide us with examples of said censorship?
no. all the examples would be censored out by the censorship queens of southcensorship.
watch this! fuck putin, fuck trump, fuck xinping, fuck khomeni, fuck macron, fuck merz, fuck starmer, fuck the jews, fuck the arabs, fuck the christians, fuck the buddhists, fuck the hindus.
see no censorship
the drugs will end up in america
and canada… and latin america… and eu…. and eastern europe… and australia…
china or india should throw atomic bombs at uyghur terrorists.
https://www.syriahr.com/en/367803/
or at least that the treacherous alavites, who signed reconciliation with hts terrorists. their mountains should change from green to white. with the help of erosion and avalanches, all the fertile mountains should turn into bare stones
ussa and israel are at war with the whole globe. nobody in history has pissed off so many nations in such little time. it shows what morons these people are. when you turn the world against you, you can only blame yourself. the zionists are like an asshole drunk getting kicked out of all the town bars. maybe the problem is the drunk not the bars
buen artículo 👍🏾
that the alawites will see the syrian reconciliation when there is no more mountains green and full of sheep. but it will be white and there will be no other than stones on it. https://www.syriahr.com/en/367840/
the fires that hts undertaking will take care of everything. https://www.syriahr.com/en/367840/ they have signed syrian reconciliation and syrian reconciliation involves erosion and landslides. so bare stones and no sheep more.
“the u.$. is gonna sell it'”$” debt to the despots of the world by using stable coin so the drug dealers can own the whole country. this is the genius act. laughable group.”….
the cartels are mean hombres – chumpo, yet again, is biting off more than he can chew. if he’s worried about drugs, he needs to look at the (((sackler family))) and their kind.
i’d like trump to explain how me now paying 15% more for french champagne has reduced the flow of fentanyl into the county. his emergency use authorization of tariffs was supposed to stop the drugs. the tariffs were a stealth tax on americans because the country is bankrupt and no one will buy our treasury debt. that’s why congress hasn’t called bullshit on the tariffs yet because they need the cash.