{"id":25560,"date":"2023-08-31T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25560"},"modified":"2023-09-01T06:40:52","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T06:40:52","slug":"mexico-says-no-way-as-trump-others-vow-to-send-us-military-to-fight-cartels-the-dallas-morning-news-bc-usmexico-military-cartelsda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25560","title":{"rendered":"Mexico says, \u2018No way,\u2019 as Trump, others vow to send US military to fight cartels [The Dallas Morning News :: BC-USMEXICO-MILITARY-CARTELS:DA]"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The leading Republican candidates for president want to unleash military strikes<\/a> inside Mexico against the cartels \u2014 with or without Mexico\u2019s permission \u2014 and have not voiced concern about the likely blowback.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has promised a naval blockade in a second term. At the debate he skipped last week<\/a>, rivals promised to counter the border \u201cinvasion\u201d with assets shifted from Ukraine. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to send special forces into Mexico \u201con day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the border, where memories of U.S. bullying are long, talk about SEAL teams hunting drug kingpins or drone strikes on fentanyl labs is not going over well.<\/p>\n

Current and former officials on both sides say if it\u2019s only campaign-season bluster that\u2019s bad enough, but if they really mean it, the consequences could be dire.<\/p>\n

Cooperation on law enforcement, security, drug trafficking and migration from Central and South America could be scaled back dramatically. Mexico could cut staff at ports of entry, throttling cross-border trade \u2014 despite the fact that each country is the other\u2019s biggest trading partner.<\/p>\n

The biggest backlash would stem from unilateral U.S. operations.<\/p>\n

President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador called the growing calls for military action \u201coffensive\u201d and disrespectful. On Monday, he accused the candidates of pandering as they try to outdo frontrunner Donald Trump with \u201cextreme anti-immigrant policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we are in election season, they talk about intervening in Mexico\u2019s affairs, about not respecting our sovereignty,\u201d he said, simultaneously downplaying the threats as campaign posturing and making clear such moves would not go unanswered.<\/p>\n

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs \u2014 the top U.S. military official \u2014 has called any uninvited use of force a terrible idea<\/a> \u201cthat would just lead to something worse than what you already have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico is poised for a boom as U.S. manufacturers shift production from Asia after pandemic-era supply chain disruptions. Over three-quarters of Mexico\u2019s exports go to the United States.<\/p>\n

But \u201cthe issue of military intervention is so sensitive that any president in Mexico would have to respond incredibly forcefully. Even if it hurt the country\u2019s economy,\u201d said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worries me when people talk about this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause it creates a resistance in Mexico to cooperating with the U.S. on organized crime. These are international businesses. You have to go at them in multiple places, on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican border. You can\u2019t do that if you lose cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polling shows just over half of Americans overall, and a large majority of Republicans, consider the border crisis an \u201cinvasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the backdrop for these calls for military engagement in Mexico.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just rhetoric. The Constitution allows states to defend themselves in case of invasion.<\/p>\n

Gov. Greg Abbott has asserted<\/a> to the White House and in court that because Texas is under \u201cinvasion,\u201d it has the right <\/a>to install an anti-migrant barrier in the Rio Grande and take measures it deems necessary without federal permission.<\/p>\n

Depicting problems at the border as an invasion, and using that to justify a military counterpunch, angers Mexicans.<\/p>\n

Martha B\u00e1rcena, Mexico\u2019s ambassador in Washington for the second half of Trump\u2019s term, views with alarm the rapid escalation of anti-Mexican sentiment, from demands for a border wall to open discussion of invading her country.<\/p>\n

It \u201crisks poisoning the goodwill and cooperation with Mexico,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She lauded L\u00f3pez Obrador for \u201cbeing clear\u201d on the matter but said if anything, he\u2019s being too restrained: \u201cOur government should send that message more explicitly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Stone-cold dead\u2019<\/h3>\n

Last week\u2019s GOP debate made clear the consensus about the use of force in Mexico to address the twin crises of migration and drugs.<\/p>\n

When it comes to drug smugglers, DeSantis said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to use force and we\u2019re going to leave them stone-cold dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said they\u2019d divert U.S. military resources from Ukraine to the Southern border<\/a> \u2014 implying that concerns related to Mexico aren\u2019t diplomatic and law enforcement challenges so much as threats akin to Russia\u2019s military invasion of its own neighbor.<\/p>\n

Ramaswamy, who also invoked the term \u201cinvasion\u201d about the border, has promised to eradicate Mexican cartels \u201cOsama bin Laden-style, Soleimani-style\u201d in his first six months \u2014 referring to the al Qaeda mastermind killed in a raid ordered by then-President Barack Obama, and the Iranian commander killed in an airstrike ordered by Trump.<\/p>\n

Trump has asked advisers<\/a> to draw up \u201cbattle plans\u201d for a second term \u201cthat include unilateral military strikes and troop deployments\u201d into Mexico, according to Rolling Stone. In a recent campaign video<\/a>, he vowed to \u201cimpose a full naval embargo on the drug cartels and deploy military assets to inflict maximum damage on cartel operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

His former defense secretary, Mark Esper, revealed in a memoir that he\u2019d once talked Trump out of an attack after the president suggested \u201cwe could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,\u201d adding \u201cno one would know it was us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $4 million-per-shot Patriot system is designed to intercept missiles and aircraft<\/a>, not destroy ground targets.<\/p>\n

Two other GOP contenders, both from South Carolina, echo the message.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will unleash our military to crush the cartels and stop these terrorists from killing our kids,\u201d Sen. Tim Scott said in an ad taped at the border fence in Yuma, Ariz.<\/p>\n

Nikki Haley, a former governor and Trump\u2019s United Nations ambassador, vowed last week<\/a> to \u201csend special operations in there and eliminate them just like we eliminated ISIS. If Mexico won\u2019t deal with it, I\u2019ll make sure I deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans cheering for war with Mexico are taking the United States down a dark, dangerous path,\u201d Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said after the GOP debate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The GOP presidential field isn\u2019t unanimous on sending in troops.<\/p>\n

Mike Pence, Trump\u2019s vice president, said he preferred to \u201cpartner with the Mexican military\u201d to destroy the cartels. Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor who led the Drug Enforcement Administration under former President George W. Bush, said economic pressure would be more effective because \u201ccooperation makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Obrador has urged Mexican-American voters to shun politicians leveling the threats.<\/p>\n

His underlings worry about direct rebukes.<\/p>\n

They recall the previous president, Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto, having to smooth things over with Trump after lambasting his anti-Mexico, anti-migrant campaign rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201c2016 taught us that anything is possible in the United States,\u201d said one top official in L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s government. \u201cWe need to walk cautiously because during presidential campaigns, Mexico represents a low hanging fruit \u2026 we have a lot to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cultural scars<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s hard to overstate the cultural scar tissue from events like the Mexican-American War \u2014 taught in Mexican schools as the Insurgency from the North.<\/p>\n

The war ended in 1848 with Mexico losing half its territory \u2014 including California, Arizona and most of what\u2019s now the American West.<\/p>\n

The opening line of the U.S. Marines\u2019 Hymn<\/a> \u2014 \u201cFrom the halls of Montezuma\u201d<\/em> \u2014 refers to a battle remembered very differently south of the border. Six cadets died defending a military academy in Mexico City on Sept. 13, 1847, from an invasion force ordered by President James Polk.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Sept. 13 is a national holiday in Mexico in honor of the boy heroes\u2019 sacrifice. The youngest was 13.<\/p>\n

The U.S. invaded Veracruz in 1914 <\/a>and occupied the port city for seven months. In March 1916, when revolutionary Pancho Villa\u2019s forces killed 10 Americans in a New Mexico border town, President Woodrow Wilson sent an invasion force of 14,000 men<\/a> that hunted him across northern Mexico for the next 11 months. They pushed 350 miles into the interior before giving up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this deep sense that you can\u2019t really trust the United States because they\u2019re going to come in, and just do what they want, and they don\u2019t respect our sovereignty and they don\u2019t respect us,\u201d said Earl Anthony Wayne, a retired career diplomat who served four years as ambassador to Mexico.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the presidential contenders.<\/p>\n

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Kennedy, R-La., are pushing a bill to authorize force in Mexico, vowing to \u201cunleash the fury\u201d of the U.S. military against drug cartels \u201cwherever they exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar bill from Houston-area Rep. Dan Crenshaw has 21 Republican co-sponsors, including nine Texans \u2014 though not the one who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re essentially declaring war against Mexico, and it would have widespread ramifications,\u201d McCaul warned in June. \u201cThere are ways to deal with the cartels, including other operations not quite so public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Theatrics\u2019<\/h3>\n

Such measures imperil the collaboration that began to blossom after the 1994 North American trade deal.<\/p>\n

Mexico also was eager to be seen as a reliable partner on counterterrorism<\/a> after Sept. 11, 2001, minding that any terror attack linked to Mexico would trigger a costly border shutdown.<\/p>\n

Under Bush, who\u2019d seen the value of trade as Texas governor, Mexican distrust eased. The U.S. began sending billions in security aid, providing police training to fend off corruption and improve effectiveness, and stepping up efforts to intercept guns flowing south to the cartels.<\/p>\n

A rupture began when Trump took office, and deepened with the election of L\u00f3pez Obrador in 2018, at least publicly.<\/p>\n

Mexicans were deeply insulted at Trump\u2019s promise to force them to pay for a border wall they viewed as an affront.<\/p>\n

He threatened tariffs and other measures that never materialized \u2014 though he did manage to prod Mexico to deploy 28,000 troops to its borders with Central America and the United States to deter migration north, spinning that as a better deal than a $15 billion check for wall construction.<\/p>\n

Mexicans say the deployments sapped the military\u2019s capacity to fight organized crime.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials say the DEA, FBI and other agencies routinely work behind the scenes with Mexican counterparts, sharing intelligence. Together they nab high-value narcos and take down drug labs, even as L\u00f3pez Obrador railed about insults to Mexican \u201csovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Mexico handed over one of the DEA\u2019s most wanted fugitives, a leader of the Sinaloa cartel.<\/p>\n

Tony Payan, director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute for Public Policy, sees a delicate moment in U.S.-Mexico relations, with \u201cquite serious\u201d ramifications as DeSantis and others try \u201cto out-Trump Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flow of fentanyl is a major challenge, he said, but Mexico\u2019s own \u201csecurity breakdown\u201d is far too grave for such casual discussion of invasion and military force.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t talk about that, especially in a public setting. This is a time for diplomacy, not theatrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

\u00a92023 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2014 The leading Republican candidates for president want to unleash military strikes inside Mexico against the cartels \u2014 with or without Mexico\u2019s permission \u2014 and have not voiced concern about the likely blowback. Donald Trump has promised a naval blockade in a second term. At the debate he skipped last week, rivals promised to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25561,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25560\/revisions\/25561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}