Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador has criticized proposals in Congress to use military action against Mexican drug cartels, while Rep. Brian Higgins (R-N.Y.) suggested that the U.S. doesn't need Mexican support to fight the cartels.
Speaking at a news conference March 9 in Mexico City, Lopez Obrador addressed the recent proposals from Republicans in Congress to use military action in Mexico against drug cartels.
According to NBC News, Lopez Obrador did not take kindly to these requests, believing that any U.S. military action on Mexican soil would be a threat to its sovereignty. The recent kidnappings and killings of U.S. citizens and the opioid crisis have led Republicans to call for a more aggressive approach against the Mexican drug cartels.
“We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less that a foreign government’s armed forces.” Lopez Obrador said. He added that if talk of “aggression” persists from the Republicans, the Mexican government would call on Hispanics in the U.S. "not to vote for that party.”
Higgins told Federal Newswire, “The Mexican president should embrace the simple fact that it’s in his nation's best interests to participate in the joint military operations at the United States-Mexico border theatre of engagement that some of us in Congress have envisioned and support."
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said in an e-mail, "We’d hate to have to conduct those operations on our own.”
Crenshaw introduced a resolution in January that would “authorize the use of U.S. Armed Forces against those responsible for trafficking fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance into the United States or carrying out other related activities that cause regional destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.”
According to the Dallas Morning News, Crenshaw said he was getting more traction with his bill to authorize the use of military force against the cartels than previous efforts, adding that the resolution was good for five years.
Crenshaw's bill, House Joint Resolution 18, has 17 co-sponsors, with the addition of Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) on March 9.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News that sentiment is growing for the U.S. to add Mexican cartels to a list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations amid the border controversy.
“They’ve been terrorizing America, the drug cartels," he told Fox News. "I want to terrorize them. I want to create a model where they can’t sleep at night.”
Graham added that listing cartels as terrorist organizations will give the U.S. government the authorization and force needed to combat the fentanyl crisis at the border.
