On Sunday, US President Donald Trump confirmed that he had offered to send American troops to Mexico to help President Claudia Sheinbaum combat drug trafficking — an offer Sheinbaum revealed a day earlier and said she had declined.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida, said he had made the offer because the drug cartels were “horrible people” who had caused thousands of deaths.
Can’t Think Straight
“If Mexico wanted help with the cartels, I would be honored to go in and do it,” he said.
Asked if he was disappointed that Sheinbaum had turned down the offer, Trump said, “I think she’s a lovely woman. The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight.”
Sovereignty Not For Sale
Sheinbaum said on Saturday that she had rejected Trump’s offer because “sovereignty is not for sale”.
Her comments came in response to questions about a Wall Street Journal report published on May 2 that said Trump was pressuring Mexico to allow deeper US military involvement against drug cartels to combat trafficking across the shared border.
Sheinbaum said the two countries could collaborate, but Mexico would “never accept the presence of the United States military in our territory”.
Mexico Needs To Do More: US
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council (NSC) told Reuters on Saturday that Trump had been clear that Mexico needed to do more to combat gangs and cartels engaged in drug trafficking, and the US stood ready to assist.
Trump has said publicly the US would take unilateral military action if Mexico failed to dismantle drug cartels. The two leaders have had several calls in recent months to discuss security issues, trade and immigration.
(With inputs from Reuters)
