Washington, (EFE) .- President Donald Trump defended to send troops against drug trafficking cartels in Latin America to “protect” his country, a maneuver that would mean one step further in the war against fentanil.
“Latin America has many cartels. There is a lot of drug trafficking. We want to protect our country. We have to protect our country. We have not done it for four years,” journalists responded to journalists in the White House after they asked about this possible movement.
Trump acknowledged that “they fight a difficult game” although he justified that he does it for his country. However, he gave no more details of the operation.
Read: ‘There will be no invasion; Trump’s order to use military against the cartels has nothing to do with Mexico, ‘says Sheinbaum
The Republican was interrogated hours after The New York Times published exclusively that he would have already signed a secret order instructing the Pentagon to use the military force against cartels, according to familiar sources.
In this way, the US forces would already be preparing the first plans and would have a legal instrument to carry out direct and unilateral military attacks in foreign territory against cartels.
From his return to the White House, Trump seeks to fight against the traffic of the Fentanyl in the US that, in his opinion, is mainly produced by Mexican cartels with Chinese products.
In response to the impact of this drug in his country, which causes a large number of deaths, Trump designated in February as terrorists the six main Mexican cartels: the Sinaloa cartel, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), the Northeast Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, United Cartels and the new Mexican family.
Lee: Trump ordered the army to attack foreign drug cartels, says the NYT; signed the order in secret
In July, Trump added to the Los Soles Cartel, which according to Washington would be led by Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, something that Caracas denies.
The administration intensifies the secret flights of drones about Mexico to track fentanyl laboratories, a program that began during the previous government of Joe Biden, but those operations are prohibited from using lethal force.
