President Donald Trump says the U.S. will start hitting drug cartels on land next - and hinted Mexico could be the next target.
Trump claimed to have stopped “97 percent” of the drugs coming into the U.S. by water, following a series of deadly air strikes off Venezuela in recent weeks. U.S. actions culminated in the removal of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro in a military raid at the weekend.
But it appears from an interview with Fox News, that Trump is already eyeing his next military intervention.
“We’ve knocked out 97 per cent of the drugs coming in by water and we are now going to start hitting land with regard to the cartels,” he told Sean Hannity Thursday.
“The cartels are running Mexico,” he claimed. “It’s very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country but the cartels are running it and they’re killing 250-300,000 people in our country every single year, the drugs. It’s horrible.”
Trump gave little detail on what his plans would involve, either when or exactly where any such operations would take place.
Nevertheless, the remarks will raise concerns following the recent capture of Maduro, as Trump appears to expand U.S. influence in Latin America.
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the president’s raid on Venezuela at the time.
“Mexico’s position against any form of intervention is firm, clear, and historic,” she said. “Intervention has never brought democracy, nor has it generated lasting wellbeing or stability.
“We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.”
On Thursday, the president insisted he did not need to abide by international law and the only constraint keeping his power in check was his own morality.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Trump was asked if there were any limits on his global powers following the military intervention in Venezuela.
“Yeah, there is one thing,” he replied. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
“I don’t need international law,” he said, before adding: “I’m not looking to hurt people.”
In November, the administration began planning to target drug cartels as part of what the president described as an “armed conflict” with narcotics trafficking organizations.
But the aggressive foreign policy has faced international backlash, with accusations the U.S. is acting outside of international law.
Earlier this week, the United Nations issued a statement condemning Trump’s assault on Venezuela and removal of Maduro from power as “gunboat diplomacy”.
“These actions represent a grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law, set a dangerous precedent, and risk destabilising the entire region and the world,” a group of more than a dozen U.N. experts said.
“This unprecedented attack on Venezuela must not be viewed as an isolated incident, but rather as part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern of systematic disregard for peace, international law and multilateral institutions.”
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