President Donald Trump is pressing Mexico to arrest and prosecute public officials who have collaborated with drug cartels, escalating U.S. demands on President Claudia Sheinbaum's government even as he acknowledged increased Mexican efforts against organized crime.
In a memorandum to Congress, Trump said Mexico must "arrest and prosecute the numerous corrupt public officials who have collaborated with the cartels and betrayed the security and sovereignty of their own country," according to El País.
Trump credited Sheinbaum's administration with seizing larger quantities of drugs, dismantling clandestine laboratories and deploying additional military and police resources along the U.S.-Mexico border. He also said bilateral cooperation had helped remove several cartel leaders, including Nemesio Oseguera, known as "El Mencho."
But Trump said Mexico must take further action against organizations he described as "narcoterrorists" that "dominate vast areas of its territory," while arguing that Mexico's current investment in its security forces is insufficient to sustain and expand the campaign.
The memorandum also called for tighter supply-chain controls, greater private-sector participation and significantly increased inspections at Mexican ports of entry. Trump separately said both Mexico and Canada "must do much more" to stop drugs from reaching the United States.
The demands follow similar pressure from Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this week. In an Independence Day message, Rubio said Washington and Mexico still have "much more work to do together" and described bilateral cooperation as vital to dismantling cartels, stopping fentanyl trafficking and confronting "narcoterrorism."
Rubio had taken a sharper tone a week earlier, saying "vast territories" of Mexico were controlled by cartels and that Mexican authorities had done more than ever to combat them but that it was "still not nearly enough." He said Washington hoped to confront the groups alongside Mexico, but warned the threat would eventually have to be addressed "one way or the other."
Sheinbaum rejected that characterization, saying U.S. officials should not use Mexico as an issue in the American midterm campaign. "Let's respect each other, each in our own territory, each with our own election," she said on September 10, while maintaining that Mexico would continue cooperating with Washington on security.
