Tension in Latin America. The White House's order to the U.S. Army to combat cartels abroad spreads seismic waves through the region that threaten to further disrupt the Trump administration's relations with its counterparts. His administration's escalation of the narrative in the fight against transnational crime increases pressure on Nicolás Maduro's regime and Claudia Sheinbaum's Mexican government, which has been looming over the specter of military intervention since before the Republican returned to Washington for his second term.
“We're playing it tough. We'll be able to elaborate more on that soon,” Trump briefly stated Friday about the initiative, which was exclusively reported by The New York Times. This forced Sheinbaum to respond quickly. “The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military, there will be no invasion,” the president emphasized at her morning press conference. The president has insisted on this approach for months despite signals from the White House. In February, the White House designated six Mexican cartels (the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noroeste, Cartel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana) and two gangs, Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha, as international terrorist organizations. These cartels and their operations are now under more pressure than ever.
No details are known about Trump's order, including when it was adopted and whether specific strikes have been suggested to the Pentagon, although such plans are already being drawn up by military officials, according to what the US newspaper has learned. The Times does not know whether other executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Justice or the State Department, have advised against such actions.
The initiative, however, responds to a long-standing demand from the hardline wing of the Republican Party. US military operations against drug traffickers, blamed by Washington for flooding the country's streets with fentanyl, which has created a national epidemic with more than 70,000 deaths a year, have been a demand of far-right congressmen for years. The policy has crept into the center of the Republican Party at least since 2023, when Trump's main rivals for the presidency, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also promised to intervene militarily with drones in Mexican territory.
The Trump administration's escalation has been revealed amid signs of an economic slowdown and pressure from the case of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. For now, the decision appears to be aimed squarely at the southern United States. Especially Venezuela, where, since at least 2020, US authorities have been tracking the links between President Nicolás Maduro and 14 officials of his regime and organized crime.
During Trump's first presidency, criminal charges were announced against the Venezuelan president and his alliances with the FARC, a relationship that allegedly dates back at least to the Hugo Chávez administration. This year marks two decades since the Venezuelan leader suspended anti-drug cooperation with the United States, arguing that the DEA, Washington's anti-drug agency, was a tool of foreign interference.
But Trump 2.0 has doubled down on his bid against Maduro. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that the government has increased the reward for aiding Maduro's arrest to $50 million. The official accuses the South American leader of collaborating with the Tren de Aragua (Aragua Train), an organization born in Venezuela fifteen years ago and operating out of the Tocorón prison in the center of the country with the approval of authorities. The gang has expanded globally with the mass exodus of Venezuelans thanks to human trafficking, drug trafficking, and extortion.
Maduro is also linked by Trump supporters to the Cartel of the Suns, a criminal organization responsible for trafficking drugs to the United States. In late July, the Treasury Department added the criminal group to the list of global terrorist organizations for its activities. In the declaration, authorities also linked this group to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
The Cartel of the Suns, more than a formal organization, is made up of several powerful groups within the government, led by the military, who promote, protect, and benefit from this illicit activity in Venezuela. The organization's name refers to the solar insignia that adorn the uniforms of high-ranking military officers.
Washington had already placed a $15 million price on Maduro's head during Trump's first administration."Maduro and others corrupted Venezuelan institutions and provided political and military protection to narco-terrorists (...) Maduro and the other defendants expressly sought to flood the United States with cocaine to undermine the health and well-being of our nation," read the first formal indictment against the president, signed by New York prosecutor Geoffrey Berman. The United States maintains a similar narrative today against Mexican drug lords and their deliberate decision to traffic fentanyl into the nation.
The Chavistas have always denied these accusations."These desperate Hollywood Western-style offers represent an act of interference," Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López declared on Friday."We declare ourselves on permanent alert to deter and neutralize any action against peace and the safeguarding of the territory," he added. Other high-ranking regime officials, such as Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior and Justice, also rejected the accusations:"Every time someone bothers them, they appoint them as the leader of the Cartel of the Suns."
Although Chavismo cut ties with the DEA in 2005, Caracas has spent recent years publicizing its operations to dismantle drug labs and shoot down 312 planes used by drug traffickers since 2012. Minister Padrino emphasized this Friday that Venezuelan authorities have seized 51 tons of drugs so far this year.
In Mexico, Sheinbaum has also chosen to make the results of her operations against drug trafficking gangs more visible. This is especially true when Republicans criticize her for her lack of attention to the issue."A lot of work has been done to reduce homicides, drug seizures, and on the northern border, and the flow of fentanyl across the border has been reduced by 50%," the president said, somewhat wearily, in mid-July. Furthermore, her administration handed 29 high-profile drug lords over to Washington in February for prosecution in federal courts.
The United States also considers former Chavista officials key to obtaining information on the alleged criminal acts of Maduro and his collaborators. The arrest in Spain of Hugo Carvajal, Hugo Chávez's former intelligence chief, who was extradited to the United States, can be framed in this context. The retired military officer pleaded guilty in June to charges of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, and two other charges related to weapons possession. Known as El Pollo, Carvajal is identified by the U.S. justice system as the leader of the Cartel of the Suns. Trump is tightening the siege on this criminal group.
