President Donald Trump reportedly pressured Mexican President Gloria Sheibaum to allow the US military deeper into the country to help fight against drug cartels.
The issue emerged in a phone call between the two leaders. Trump and Sheinbaum indicated the conversation was productive, but sources told The Wall Street Journal that things became tense when the cartels came up as a topic of discussion.
Tension rose toward the end of a 45-minute telephone conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on April 16 when Trump pushed to have U.S. armed forces take a leading role in battling Mexican drug gangs that produce and smuggle fentanyl to the U.S., the people said. Sheinbaum told Trump her administration would cooperate on matters such as intelligence sharing but not accept a direct military presence, the people added.
Trump has said publicly that the U.S. would take unilateral action if Mexico doesn’t dismantle cartels. “Mexico is very, very afraid of the cartels,” Trump told the Spanish-language network of Fox News shortly after the April 16 conversation. “We want to help her. We want to help Mexico, because you can’t run a country like that. You just can’t.”
Trump and Sheinbaum have said their call was productive. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said robust bilateral cooperation is delivering results and creating a historically secure border.
“But Mexico still must do more to protect Americans from dangerous foreign terrorist organizations and the drugs and violence they flood into communities on both sides of the border,” she said.
Mexican officials said Mexico won’t consent to a U.S. military presence because of the nations’ fraught history, which includes two invasions since 1846.