The U.S. under President Donald Trump is crafting a confrontational approach toward Latin America that signals a willingness to use military force against drug cartels, discarding the previous administration’s preference for carrots over sticks to coax countries into alignment with U.S. interests.
The New York Times reported Friday that the president ordered the Defense Department to prepare options to take military action against Latin American drug cartels. A U.S. agreement with Mexico to expand security cooperation, expected to be signed in the coming weeks, would facilitate joint monitoring of criminal organizations by security forces and coordination on the border.
But the pending agreement won’t provide legal grounds for direct U.S. military action on Mexican territory, officials have said. Any such intervention would risk inflaming anti-U.S. sentiments already whipped up by the Trump administration’s wave of tariffs.
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