Mexican president warns U.S. against any ‘invasion’ to fight cartels

'We want to be clear given this designation that we don’t negotiate our sovereignty,' Claudia Sheinbaum said after the U.S. classified Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mexico will not tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty after the Trump administration moved to formally designate eight Latin American crime organizations as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

“This cannot be an opportunity for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing on Thursday. “With Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”

“We want to be clear given this designation that we don’t negotiate our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum added. “There can be no interference or subordination.

“Both countries want to reduce the consumption of drugs and the trafficking of illegal drugs.”

Sheinbaum said her government was not consulted by the United States in its decision to include Mexican cartels on a list of global terrorist organizations, including the the Sinaloa cartel, United cartel, the Michoacana family and the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Canada, too, is listing seven transnational criminal organizations — including multiple drug cartels — as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code, the public safety minister announced Thursday.

Sheinbaum said Thursday she would also propose a second constitutional reform that would stiffen the penalties for Mexicans and foreigners who engage in arms trafficking, which is a top diplomatic issue for Mexico, as most guns used in crimes in the country are trafficked from the United States.

Last week, she threatened U.S. gunmakers with the legal action if Trump’s administration went through with its intentions of declaring Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

“If they declare these organized crime groups as terrorists, we will have no option than to extend our lawsuits against the U.S., because as the Justice Department has already confessed, 74 per cent of all firearms in possession of drug cartels come from the U.S.,” Sheinbaum said.