'Hope Trump makes this hell less hot': Trump's threats to take out Mexico's cartels has Mexicans cheering

Over the weekend, President-elect Trump stated that he intended to declare Mexico's drug cartels 'terrorist' organizations and come after them.

As Reuters reported:

"I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations," Trump said.
While in office in 2019, Trump shelved such a plan at the request of Mexico's then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said he wanted U.S. cooperation on fighting drug gangs, not intervention.

Some U.S. officials had also privately expressed misgivings that the measure could damage relations with Mexico and hinder the Mexican government's fight against drug trafficking.

Trump's official election platform says that when he takes office he will order the Pentagon to use "special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations."

The Reuters report is kind of dull plain-vanilla reporting.

The Los Angeles Times report, though, by two experienced foreign correspondents, is pretty interesting:

One of the more surprising foreign policy ideas the Trump team has proposed on the eve of its ascension to power is military intervention in Mexico to go after drug cartels and possibly stop migrants headed to the United States.

The idea seemed so wild and provocative — siccing U.S. troops on a peaceful neighbor — that Mexican officials figured it was nothing more than Trump bluster aimed at revving up his base.

But now President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Ronald D. Johnson to serve as ambassador to Mexico has them wondering if he is serious.

Johnson is both a former U.S. military officer — a Green Beret — and a former CIA official. And in his previous post as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Johnson was an enthusiastic enforcer of Trump’s policies in support of its president, Nayib Bukele, an authoritarian widely accused of human rights abuses in a massive crackdown on gangs and in silencing dissent.

It seems to be concentrating their minds as they add two and two.

From them, we are starting to see headlines like these -- this one from Reuters a few hours ago:

Mexico's president may be toughening fight with drug cartels

But the most vivid response to these threats from Trump are coming from the little guys, the ordinary Mexicans who have to live through cartel activity -- from threats, to violence, to shakedowns, to theft, to absent visitors.

Arturo Sarukhan is a respected Mexican ambassador from a previous administration, I've met him several times and he's a nice guy even if I don't always agree with him but often do. He put out this tweet in Spanish, as the view of a Mexican diplomat representing Mexico's establishment from the more conservative side:

⚠️
Más allá de que muchos aplaudan en #México que Trump anuncie que designará a organizaciones criminales operando en nuestro país como organizaciones terroristas internacionales (FTOs, por las siglas en inglés), esta decisión conlleva muchas secuelas que se siguen sin…

— Amb. Arturo Sarukhan (@Arturo_Sarukhan) December 23, 2024

Google Translate has it this way in English:

Even though many people applaud #México Trump's announcement that he will designate criminal organizations operating in our country as international terrorist organizations (FTOs), this decision carries with it many consequences that are still not properly measured, but also the opportunity for the Mexican government to do Jiu-jitsu with this designation if it is given.

1) What is not processed in Mexico:

• To begin with, designating them as terrorists will only deepen the militarization of the fight against drug trafficking; the problem is aggravated because when the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails.

• That is the reason why, first with Bush and then with Obama (and the respective legislatures, whether with a Democratic or Republican majority), that possibility was ultimately ruled out after bilateral consultations with Mexico.

• The designation of criminal groups as FTOs also has consequences for trade, financial and economic relations. A country in which FTOs exist may be subject to measures suspending benefits from trade agreements or the imposition of trade sanctions, freezing the assets of Mexican nationals or companies in the US, the suspension of interbank relations with US banks, regulation and control of remittances, or the obligation of the US to vote against credit lines to Mexico and programs of multilateral economic organizations such as the World Bank, the IMF or the IDB.

• The decision also implies the potential suspension of visas to that nation.

2) The two opportunities that open up for Mexico if this decision is implemented:

• Any American who illegally sells a weapon that is trafficked to Mexico or sells weapons to drug traffickers, or launders drug trafficking proceeds, will ipso facto become an accomplice to terrorism, and the Mexican government should pressure them to be treated as such in the United States.

• One of the most important lessons - and tools - of the United States in the fight against international terrorism after 2001 was the use of a very aggressive policy - inter-agency and centralized in the Treasury Department - to detect, combat and prevent money laundering that fed fundamentalist terrorism, and which largely explains why there has not been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since then.

That experience should be used by Mexico to underline that this approach - instead of eradication, interdiction or arrest of bosses - must be the spearhead in the fight against international organized crime.

So I do not agree with those in Mexico who celebrate this potential decision starting January 20, even though it is the direct result of Lopez Obrador's policies against organized crime and the evisceration of bilateral cooperation with the US in matters of security. But if it does happen, it will undoubtedly open up opportunities - for positioning, narrative and bilateral public policy - that the Mexican government should not waste.

Read that last translated paragraph again: "those in Mexico who celebrate this potential decision starting January 20."

I tweeted that I was surprised to hear that anyone was celebrating this talk from Trump and was inundated by tweets from ordinary Mexicans saying that day couldn't come soon enough. It's anecdotal of course, contingent on which Mexicans read Sarukhan's tweets, but there was so much of it, I was taken aback -- Mexicans really don't like this cartel activity and their government's inaction on it and some actually welcome Trump's threat to invade their country.

The thread is here but here are a few choice tweet replies from Mexicans in Mexico to give the flavor. (I am sorry that so many felt they needed to reply in English for me, Google translate works great on tweets so they didn't need to put themselves out, but the fact that they did tells us they really wanted us here to know this):

We're cheering because we are tired of being abused, of living with fear and without freedom, tired of paying taxes and extrortion, we don't reserve this. Hope Trumps make this hell less hot.

— mismo Cambo (@againCambo) December 23, 2024

Mexican government arrived to power thanks to cartels, how would they become serious against them?

— Fernando Bautista Reyes (@FerBauRe) December 23, 2024

Is not some mexican, but maybe the 95% of us.

The “barbarían marines” are better than the barbarian cartels

Sounds good to me about an Americans citizen sell a weapon to the new terrorist can fall under arrest.

Perfect match!

— Norepinefrina (@CmteNore) December 23, 2024

Exactly, not only that. Many of us believe the government are colluded with the organized crime.

— Maria Ruiz Varela M.Sc. (@mariaruizv) December 23, 2024

In the "morena" administrations they are accomplices. The cartels have financed their political campaigns, which is why they do not fight them.

— JManuel Ele (@jomalou1) December 23, 2024

Is that a consensus or what? This is a great unreported story for some enterprising reporter who can get out to Mexico on this -- the Mexicans will give them an earful on how they support Trump's threat to invade Mexico and hose out the cartels.

As the press won't report this, maybe the Trump team will get wind of it on Twitter -- there seem to be hints of a groundswell of public support for Trump taking action against the cartel monsters making life hell for ordinary Mexicans. In a way, it's just like Trump's 2016 taco bowl stunt, which Mexicans were supposed to be outraged about, but actually kind of enjoyed. Trump probably knows more about ordinary Mexicans and how they see things than anyone supposes.

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