Mexico’s Foreign Ministry is requesting a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after President Donald Trump told former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly he planned to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
“Mexico will never allow any actions that violate its national sovereignty. We will be firm. I have let the United States know my position, as well as our plan against organized transnational crime,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted in a statement Tuesday night.
“Mutual respect is the basis of cooperation.”
In an interview released Tuesday on Bill O’Reilly’s website, Trump said his administration had been working to label drug cartels operating in Mexico as terrorist organizations over the last 90 days, but it was unclear when that might happen.
“I will be designating the cartels – absolutely,” he said. “You know designation is not that easy. You have to go through a process and we’re well into that process.”
O’Reilly phrased the question in military terms, asking whether the president would use drones to attack the cartels. But a terrorist designation is about sanctions, including the blocking of assets and prohibiting other entities from doing business with those on the list.
Nearly 70 groups have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations, according to the State Department. The list includes groups such as al-Qaeda, the group responsible for the 2001 terror attacks, and the Islamic State.
The president told O’Reilly that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has rebuffed Trump’s offer to send assistance.
“I’ve actually offered him to let us go in and clean it out and he so far has rejected the offer,” Trump told O’Reilly.
Earlier this month Trump spoke with Obrador about U.S. assistance after the ambush killings of nine Americans – three mothers and their young children – in Mexico. Relatives believe the attack may have been a case of mistaken identity by rival drug cartels.
Trump has floated the idea of designating drug cartels in Mexico as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) before. In a March interview with Breitbart, Trump said he considering labeling cartels, or factions of cartels, as terror groups.
“We’re thinking about doing it very seriously. In fact, we’ve been thinking about it for a long time.”
“It’s psychological, but it’s also economic,” Trump said. “As terrorists – as terrorist organizations, the answer is yes. They are.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said in a statement Tuesday it had contacted U.S. authorities to address the legal designation, as well as the flow of arms and money, to organized crime, and to “understand the meaning and the scope of [Trump’s] remarks.”
Trump’s comments appeared to come as a surprise as Ebrard dismissed U.S. plans for designating drug cartels as terror groups on Monday. The foreign minister suggested Mexico might retaliate for such a move.
“I don’t think the United States will pursue this path because we’re working together, and I don’t think they would want to open up the possibility of Mexico invoking the same legal principles,” he said.
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