President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States is going to start «hitting land” in its fight against Mexico’s drug cartels.
Trump was talking to Fox News host Sean Hannity in an exclusive in-person interview.
«We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels,» Trump said, signaling escalation.
His remarks come less than a week after Washington executed an operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bring him before a federal court in New York to face charges of narco-terrorism.
«The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very, very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country. But the cartels are running it, and they’re killing 250,000-300,000 people in our country every single year,» the Republican added in the interview broadcast Thursday night.
Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has said he will combat drug trafficking with an iron fist, especially fentanyl from Mexico, and has offered to send the US military to attack drug cartels.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected US military intervention, arguing that Mexico is a sovereign country and that her administration is committed to a peaceful solution.
“It is necessary to reaffirm that in Mexico, the people rule, and that we are a free, independent and sovereign country,” Sheinbaum said on Monday. “Cooperation, yes. Subordination and intervention, no.”
On Sunday, Trump praised his Mexican counterpart but claimed she “is concerned. She’s a little afraid. The cartels are running Mexico.”
«You have to do something with Mexico. Mexico has to get their act together because they’re pouring through Mexico. And we’re going to have to do something. We’d love Mexico to do it. They’re capable of doing it. But unfortunately, the cartels are very strong,» the New York businessman told reporters a day after the operation to arrest Maduro.
Trump and his Cabinet have insisted in recent days that Washington will not hesitate to use its military might to defend its national security, which it considers threatened by Mexican cartels.
Meeting with Machado
In the interview, Trump also said he would like to meet Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado who will be in Washington next week, saying she is «a very nice person.»
Hannity asked the president if he would accept the Nobel Peace Prize won by Machado, who offered it to him for ordering the military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro, and Trump responded, «It would be a great honor.»
He once again claimed he had stopped eight wars as his reasoning for why the award should be his.
Trump’s interest in meeting with Machado contrasts with his initial statements about her after Maduro’s capture, when he said he believed she was not ready to assume power in Caracas and that she lacked popular support.
The Republican also boasted that the US built the oil industry in Venezuela and “it was stolen from us … and I just took it back.”
“We are taking billions and billions of dollars worth of oil and it will be hundreds of billions, no it’ll be trillions of dollars, but we’re going to be there till we straighten out the country,” he said.
On Friday, the US president is scheduled to meet with representatives of 14 oil companies that will “go in, they’re going to rebuild the whole oil infrastructure.»
He also said elections will be held in the South American country in the near future.