President Trump said he thinks Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is too afraid of cartels to allow U.S. troops to cross the border to help combat the groups that smuggle drugs and migrants.
Mr. Trump confirmed to reporters Sunday night that he offered to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help to fight against the Mexican cartels, but Ms. Sheinbaum rejected his offer.
“She’s so afraid of the cartels she can’t walk … And I think she’s a lovely woman. The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump described the cartels in Mexico as “horrible people that have been killing people left and right,” and explained he thought it is important for U.S. military intervention in the country.
“[The cartels have] made a fortune on selling drugs and destroying our people. We lost 300,000 people last year to fentanyl and drugs,” Mr. Trump said.
“They are bad news…If Mexico wanted help with the cartels, we would be honored to go in and do it. I told her that. I would be honored to go in and do it. The cartels are trying to destroy our country. They’re evil.”
Ms. Sheinbaum said she told Mr. Trump at the time that Mexico would “never accept the presence” of the U.S. military in her country.
“No, President Trump, our territory is inalienable, sovereignty is inalienable,” Ms. Sheinbaum said she told Mr. Trump. “We can collaborate. We can work together, but with you in your territory and us in ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the United States Army on our territory.”
The issue of accepting U.S. forces on Mexican soil is a sensitive one in that country because of the history between the two nations. No Mexican party wants U.S. forces in their country.
Americans settled en masse in Texas, then a province of Mexico, in the early 19th century, only to declare independence in 1836 and then join the U.S. shortly afterward. The U.S. and Mexico fought a major war in 1848 and the victorious Americans took the rest of what is now the U.S. southwest.
There have been multiple smaller wars and incursions even since then, including the U.S. Army’s foray into northern Mexico in an effort to seize outlaw Pancho Villa and the seizure of Veracruz in the south, both of which took place in the 1910s.
Mr. Trump last month authorized the military to take control of land at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the president’s broader efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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