Fearing Trump will cross border militarily to pursue cartels, Mexico moves to reform constitution
Former ICE supervisory special agent Victor Avila weighs in on the U.S. set to designate drug cartels as ‘terrorist’ organizations on ‘The Story.’
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday that she will propose constitutional reforms aimed at protecting the country’s sovereignty over concerns the U.S. military could cross the border to pursue Mexican drug cartels.
Sheinbaum made the remarks after the Trump administration designated six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, stoking fears that President Donald Trump may be setting up the possibility for U.S. military action inside Mexico.
“The Mexican people will not accept under any circumstances interventions, interference or any other act from abroad that could be harmful to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation,” Sheinbaum said.
The Mexican cartels on the Trump administration’s list include the Sinaloa, Jalisco, Zetas, the Gulf Cartels, Cartel Unidos and “La Nueva Familia Michoacana.” Other groups include the international Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13.
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the U.S. did not consult Mexico about the move regarding the cartel designation. (Reuters/Raquel Cunha)
Mexico, which has long rejected such a move by the U.S. to designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, was not consulted about the decision, Sheinbaum said.
The Trump administration designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s predecessor, had already written into Mexican law limits to how foreign agents could operate in Mexico, limiting their independence and requiring that Mexican authorities be informed of their movements. Sheinbaum proposes enshrining those limits in the constitution.
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“What we want to make clear in the face of this designation is that we do not negotiate sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said. “This cannot be an opportunity for the United States to invade our sovereignty.”
Sheinbaum also proposed a second reform to the constitution to create harsher penalties for Mexican nationals and foreigners involved in gun trafficking.
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Mexico has long demanded that the U.S. do more to prevent guns from being smuggled into Mexico from the U.S.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Trump administration designated 6 Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
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Mexico warns the US not to ‘invade our sovereignty’ in fight against cartels
Eyder Peralta
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives her daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.
MEXICO CITY—Mexico’s president is warning the United States against any violation of its territory.
The warning comes after the U.S. classified six of Mexico’s biggest organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations. (Two others from Venezuela and El Salvador were included in that designation.)
During her morning press briefing Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the U.S. made the decision to designate the cartels as terrorist groups unilaterally, without consulting Mexico. She said Mexico, like the U.S., is committed to fighting drug cartels, but through cooperation not coercion.
“This designation should not be used by the United States as an opportunity to invade our sovereignty,” she said.
President Trump has, in the past, floated the idea of bombing Mexico’s drug cartels in an effort to stop the flow of synthetic drugs.
In a recent interview, with Fox News, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “all options will be on the table” when it comes to dealing with the cartels.
“If we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border… we will take that on,” he said. “Ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the American people.”
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan directly threatened military action if the cartels take aim at the U.S. security forces now patrolling the border.
“I’ll will send a warning [to cartels],” he told ABC News. “You hurt a border patrol, you hurt a soldier, the wrath of President Trump is going to come down.”
Sheinbaum said Mexico is committed to working with the United States to stop the flow of fentanyl, but Mexico, she said, will not tolerate any American interference.
To that end, she sent a proposed constitutional amendment to Congress that explicitly says the Mexican people reject foreign interventions.
“The people of Mexico will under no circumstance accept foreign interventions… like coup d’états or interferences in our elections or the violation of the Mexican territory be it by land, sea or air,” reads one proposed constitutional change.
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