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For decades, Mexico’s notorious drug cartels have cultivated an aura of untouchability. Not without reason: by a combination of willingness to resort to extreme violence, and official corruption and weakness, cartels have been able to operate beyond the effective reach of the law. Especially US law.
Donald Trump has changed all that.
Reviving 200 years of Monroe Doctrine American orthodoxy, Trump is re-projecting American power to its south. Arresting Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has reset the political calculus of Latin America. Not just the fact of showing that not even the most powerful dictator is beyond the reach of US justice, but in the brutal reminder of just how unstoppable American power is when freed from the shackles of Biden-era wokeism.
A Venezuelan security guard, who was on duty during the US operation to capture the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro, has revealed what transpired during Operation Absolute Resolve on January 3 […]
“It was a massacre. We were hundreds, but we had no chance,” the Venezuelan guard said. “They (US forces) were shooting with such precision and speed, it seemed like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute. We couldn’t do anything.”
He claimed an unfamiliar weapon was used in the assault. “At one point, they launched something, I don’t know how to describe it... it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly, I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move,” the guard said.
All that, with just a handful of elite US troops.
“Maybe 20 men. But those men were technologically very advanced. They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before,” he said.
And nothing the cartels have faced before. These are not the Federales the cartels are used to walking all over. Nor, like Mexican government officials, are they likely to be easily bribed.
Pants are not just being pooped in Sinaloa. They’re getting worried in Mexico City, too.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that she told her US counterpart Donald Trump that any US troop deployment in Mexico was “not on the table,” after he hinted at incoming ground attacks against drug cartels.
“We spoke about various topics, including security with respect for our sovereignties, reducing drug trafficking, trade and investments,” Sheinbaum said on social media.
Sheinbaum is talking a good game, but the unmissable subtext is that she is desperate to avoid the sort of ignominy meted out to Maduro. Of course, Sheinbaum has no need to worry about being arrested as a drug trafficker. But if Trump’s military is able to do with devastating power what decades of Mexican governments have failed to do, Sheinbaum will be humiliated.
Trump recently told Mexico it had to “get their act together,” following months of pressure over drugs and trade on the United States’ southern neighbour.
He said Sheinbaum, whom he met in Washington in December, was a “terrific person” but added he was pushing her to let him send US troops to tackle drug cartels in Mexico, an offer he said she had previously rebuffed.
Trump’s patience is surely running out.
Mexico’s two most powerful criminal organisations, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, control vast territories and have been locked in violent competition that killed more than 30,000 people last year.
Trump designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organisations in February 2025, a move Mexico condemned as threatening its sovereignty and potentially justifying military intervention.
Trump’s threat of a drug war in Mexico is another blunt warning to America’s even bigger enemies. China, Russia and Iran were all deeply entwined with the Maduro regime. China is also heavily complicit in Mexico’s drug trade – a trade which kills millions of Americans.
Overdoses from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have caused more than 100,000 deaths in the US per year since 2021.
Mexican cartels produce most of the fentanyl entering the US using chemical precursors sourced primarily from China.
This is a war on the United States in all but name. Trump has every right to fight back. As the Venezuelan socialist dictator found out, the US presidency is no longer run by woke creampuffs.
