The U.S. will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists

U.S. President Donald Trump

said in an interview that aired on Tuesday he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists over their role in drug and human trafficking .

“They will be designated... I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, the designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process,” Trump said in an interview with conservative media personality Bill O’Reilly that aired on Tuesday.

Mexico’s foreign minister

said on Monday he did not expect the United States to make such a move.

Ebrard

considered “unnecessary” for the United States to classify drug trafficking as terrorism , just as the LeBarón family has demanded; last November 4, the American Mormon family lost nine of its members in an attack by drug cartels in Sonora.

Ebrard made reference to the petition made by Bryan LeBarón through the digital platform Petition White House to the Trump administration to include Mexican cartels in the list of terrorist organizations that would allow adopting tougher measures against them.

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“We cannot allow ourselves to continue with the same failed policies used to fight organized crime . They’re terrorists and it’s time to acknowledge it!” reads the petition of the LeBarón family to the White House .

In their petition, the LeBarón family said organized crime “seeks political power to create a drug government in Mexico.” In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL , Bryan LeBarón said that the strategy of “hugs instead of guns” will not work.

The petition says that cartels, “with seemingly unlimited resources, have been almost impossible to stop. They direct the main human trafficking networks . They kidnap and extort with almost total impunity. Their unstoppable violent acts have invaded our borders and created an international crisis .”

The petition also reminds that Mexican cartels are the ones trafficking “ opioids, heroin, meth, cocaine, and ultra mortal fentanyl ” into the U.S.

Bryan LeBarón explained that they want to attract the attention of both presidents to create a joint strategy against drug cartels .

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He pointed out that Mexico is not among the nations that receive the most support from the U.S., the reason why he urged a strategy to solve this issue.

“People are afraid of Mexico’s sovereignty being affected, but there are ways to respect the laws of this country and to achieve more effective collaboration ,” pointed out the Mexican-American activist.

He said that “Mexico doesn’t have enough resources, soldiers, nor weapons ; we saw it with the release of the son of El Chapo Guzmán and also with my family’s massacre; it took them over eight hours to arrive.”

He reminded that the offering made by Trump to López Obrador, after the Bavispe, Sonora massacre, to send more troops to fight drug cartels is not something new, and added that they will talk with López in the reunion they will have on December 2, where they will ask him to accept the U.S. support to fight the crisis generated by cartels.

Inquired about this issue in the daily news conference, Ebrard explained that “Mexico would act either way” against drug trafficking, so it is “not necessary to classify it as terrorism for there to be action.” “It would be unnecessary,” he said.

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Marcelo Ebrard explained that a designation of this kind has legal implications that would allow the U.S. to intervene in Mexico’s public security policies , which is unacceptable.

“We consider that all homicide acts of any kind affect society,” he asserted.

“We don’t need to classify a group as a terrorist to act jointly .”

He added that in the case of the LeBarón family , there is significant progress but that they cannot be disclosed because of an agreement with the U.S. as part of the collaboration of both countries to investigate the attack of which they were victims.

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“There will be no impunity ; there is significant progress but the family still doesn’t have the results because of the agreement with the U.S. to not affect the course of investigations ,” he said.

He added that in Mexico, this kind of group has no other classification than organized crime .

For his part, President López Obrador said that Mexico does not want interference from foreign governments . “We do not want interference from any power, from any foreign hegemony (…) We do not sell our country, we will not allow any threat, any foreign intervention.” he said.

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