MEXICO – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has categorically dismissed the possibility of US troops entering Mexico, following reports that Donald Trump signed a secret directive paving the way for military action against foreign drug cartels.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” Sheinbaum told reporters on Friday. “We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”
Her comments came hours after The New York Times reported that Trump, who returned to the White House earlier this year, had quietly authorised the use of military force beyond US borders.
The directive reportedly provides “an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations” against cartels, both at sea and on foreign soil.
The White House did not directly address the claims but told the BBC that Trump’s “top priority is protecting the homeland.”
The move follows an executive order signed earlier this year formally designating eight drug cartels as terrorist organizations — six of them Mexican.
Trump’s administration argues the designation will allow US agencies, including the Department of Defense and intelligence services, to pursue cartels more aggressively.
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organisations, not simply drug dealing organisations,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
Mexico, however, has repeatedly pushed back against any suggestion of a cross-border military role.
Sheinbaum said her government was informed in advance of the designation order and told it “had nothing to do with the participation of any military personnel.”
“It is not part of any agreement, far from it. When it has been brought up, we have always said ‘No’,” she stressed. Earlier this year, she warned that the terrorist label “cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty.”
Despite the political friction, both governments point to recent successes in curbing migration and drug trafficking.
US Customs and Border Protection recorded the lowest monthly border crossings on record in June, while fentanyl seizures have dropped by more than half, according to US Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson.
Johnson praised the partnership in a post on X, saying the cooperation between Sheinbaum and Trump had left cartels “going bankrupt” and both nations “safer because of it.”
