Hafeezullah Karat,
On November 27, President Trump announced to designate the Mexican drug cartels as terrorists, speaking to the Fox news host Bill O’Reilly. His remarks came three weeks after the killing of 9 American-Mexican citizens by an ambushing gunman. The victims’ family was awed with immense grief and petitioned for justice.
President Trump said, “I don’t want to say what I am going to do, but they will be designated. I am going to be designating the Cartels, absolutely… I have been working for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that much easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process.” Doing so will provide a legal ground work for the US to launch an action against such a deadliest curse. The US will focus on stamping out the Narcotics coming illegally from Mexico. It thus aims at launching an operation against the Drug Cartels on its own, on the Mexican ground. They vindicate such move as to preserve their Southern border, which is prone to drug mafia’s illegal business.
Trump said that the US forces will strangle the drug cartel to elimination so that its malicious effects will be cutoff. Trump wrote on Twitter, “The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army”.
On the contrary, the President of Mexico responded in a clear no to the US intervention. “Co-operation, yes, Intervention, no” said the Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He said that they want to cooperate with the US but they don’t want any intervention. He further said that their country is not open to any kind of military and other intervention because the sovereignty of Mexico should be respected. He rendered the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, the responsibility to further address the issue. Mr. Ebrard said that Mexico would nottolerate any move violating its sovereignty… “Mutual respect is the basis of cooperation”.
Members of the Mexican Congress also showed their grievances regarding the US stance to surge for an operation against the drugs cartels in Mexico because it will violate their sovereignty. The collective opinion from Mexican government has signaled that Mexico is not going to toe the American line. Furthermore, labeling the drug cartels as terrorists would be so difficult because 80% of the Mexican territory is controlled or disputed by the drug cartels. Danger is inherent with cartels. From January to October 2019, the number of people killed by the drug cartels reached 29,414.
To put it in perspective, if the US insists on a military intervention, the following possibilities are indispensable. Firstly, the gigantic amount of bilateral trade between US and Mexico, which is $671 billion, will be hindered. Second, on the course of not paying Mexican allegiance to the US, it may cut off the aid provided to the Mexico which is $290 million annually. Third, the United States is dependent on Mexico for imports in which most significant are the electrical machinery, nuclear reactors, motor vehicles, food stuffs and vegetable which if hindered, willcause a trouble for the US. Fourth, it can also impede the big investment moves run by investors bilaterally like the General motors which has invested one and a half billion dollars in Mexico whereas the Mexican investors have also doubled the investment in US since the last decade which collectively makes up $16.6 billion providing 120,000 jobs in the United States. So there is a mutual reliance on both sides likely not to embark upon a venture to their mutual interests.No one wants to harm its interest that’s why it will be so difficult for US to go for a direct military intervention.
(Email; hafeezullah45606@gmail.com)
