The president of the United States, Donald Trump, affirmed that something must be done in Mexico in terms of combating drug trafficking, because despite having a good relationship with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, he maintained that “she does not control Mexico.”
Prior to the press conference in which he would address the issue of the arrest of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, the American offered an interview to Fox News to explain the reasons for the US intervention.
In this vein, the journalists asked him if it could also be considered a message for Mexico, to which the president made it clear that this was not the intention. However, after stating that “we are very friends with her” and that she is a “good woman,” he added that the cartels control Mexico. “She doesn’t control Mexico.”
He explained that he has asked Sheinbaum many times if “do you want us to take care of the cartels? and she tells me, no, no, Mr. President (…) So we have to do something, because in my opinion the real number of deaths – due to drug use – is 300,000 a year.”
Warning to Colombia and Cuba
Later, during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, he commented that his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, should “watch his butt” following the military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“He’s producing cocaine and they’re shipping it to the United States, so yeah, he’s got to watch his ass.”
In this regard, Petro described Washington’s actions as an “attack on the sovereignty” of Latin America and stated that they would cause a humanitarian crisis.
Likewise, Trump said that Cuba could become a topic of debate as part of a broader policy in the region, highlighting the possibility of Washington expanding its focus beyond Venezuela amid tensions in Latin America.
In this regard, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that “if I lived in Havana and were part of the government, I would be at least a little worried.”
Rubio, of Cuban origin, added that “Cuba is a disaster” and that the country is “run by incompetent and senile men.”
Subsequently, the Cuban Presidency denounced on Saturday what it described as a “criminal” attack by the United States against Venezuela and urgently requested a reaction from the international community.
