Phoenix, Arizona. The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that he will launch a new anti-drug advertising campaign to show the physical impact of using drugs such as fentanyl and reiterated his threat to designate Mexican drug cartels, and those of other countries, as terrorist organizations, once he assumes power on January 20.
“I will designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. We are going to do it immediately,” the next president emphasized during a rally on Sunday in Phoenix, Arizona.
With this statement, Trump revives an initiative that he had already proposed during his previous term (2017-2021), but that he shelved at the request of the then president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who agreed to cooperate in security although he rejected a possible US military intervention. in its territory.
Some U.S. officials had also privately expressed misgivings that the move could damage relations with Mexico and hamper the Mexican government’s fight against drug trafficking.
Trump’s official election manifesto says that when he takes office he will direct the Pentagon to use “special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations.”
The magnate recalled that he had a telephone conversation in November with the current president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, in which he assured that she was “very strong” when pointing out the problem of undocumented migration and fentanyl trafficking.
“I spoke with the new president, who is a charming and wonderful woman (…), but I told her: this cannot be done to our country, we are not going to take it anymore,” he declared.
From Mazatlán, Sinaloa, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded that it is in the United States where most of the cartels’ drugs are consumed and from there the weapons reach Mexico.
Investment
Trump gave few concrete details about the anti-drug campaign, which he does not appear to have mentioned before and which he likened to running a political campaign. According to him, his administration will spend “a lot of money” on the program, although he said it would be a “very small amount of money, relatively.”
An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Americans will die this year from synthetic opioid overdoses, most from fentanyl or closely related drugs.
