Washington."We want to protect our country," said President Donald Trump on Friday, who, according to US media, ordered the armed forces to combat Latin American cartels designated by the United States as global"terrorist" organizations.

The Republican president has waged a war on cartels since returning to power in January, primarily to try to curb the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

In February, it designated eight Latin American organized crime groups as"global terrorist organizations," including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, and the MS-13 gang. In July, it added the Cartel of the Suns, led, according to Washington, by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, to the list.

"Latin America has a lot of cartels, they have a lot of drug trafficking, so, you know, we want to protect our country. We have to protect it," Trump told a reporter at the White House who asked him if he thinks it's worth sending military personnel to combat Latin American drug cartels.

"We love this country as they love their countries. We have to protect it," the president said during an event with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"We're playing a tough game, but we'll have more to say about it soon," he added, without elaborating.

Several US media outlets claim that Trump has secretly signed an executive order to involve the military in the fight.

The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reports that the president has ordered the Pentagon to begin using military force against cartels designated as terrorist organizations.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an official whose identity it also does not reveal, maintains that for now Trump has limited himself to asking the Department of Defense to prepare options.

One of them would involve using special forces and intelligence units, although any operation would be coordinated with the countries involved, this newspaper adds.

At the end of February, the White House threatened to"open the gates of hell" against the cartels to ensure security on the border with Mexico, but the United States has ruled out an invasion.

'There will be no invasion'

"We were informed that this executive order was coming and that it had nothing to do with the participation of any military personnel or any institution in our territory," President Claudia Sheinbaum said this Friday at her regular morning press conference.

"The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military; we cooperate, we collaborate, but there will be no invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out, and, besides what we have stated in all the calls, it is not permitted, nor is it part of any agreement," he added.

The president asserted that U.S. agencies with a presence in Mexico"are highly regulated."

The designation of global "terrorist" organizations allows for the use of "elements of U.S. power, such as intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, etc., to attack these groups if we have the opportunity," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with EWTN on Thursday.

"We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply as drug trafficking organizations," Rubio said.

In his opinion,"it's no longer a matter of law enforcement. It's becoming a matter of national security."

Several Republican congressmen have long been pushing for a crackdown on drug trafficking and violence.

On Thursday, the Trump administration increased the reward to $50 million for"information leading to the arrest" of Nicolás Maduro, who was formally charged in 2020 with"narcoterrorism."

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Chavista leader uses "foreign terrorist organizations like the Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Cartel of the Suns to introduce lethal drugs and violence" into the United States, an accusation Caracas called a"smokescreen."