Trump gets tough on drug cartels

DESIGNATION: THEY WILL BE LABELLED TERROR GROUPS

Mexican authorities react to US president’s remarks made in online interview.

Washington

US President Donald Trump said in an interview posted online on Tuesday that he planned to designate Mexican drug cartels as terror groups.

The move comes after Trump called for a “war” on the cartels in early November when nine women and children from a Mormon community in northern Mexico were killed in a hail of gunfire.

The victims were dual US-Mexican citizens.

“Are you going to designate those cartels in Mexico as terror groups and start hitting them with drones?” asked Bill O’Reilly, a conservative media personality, in an interview posted on his personal website.

“I don’t want to say what I’m going to do, but they will be designated,” Trump answered. “I will be designating the cartels ... absolutely. I have been working on that for the last 90 days.

“Designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process and we are well into that process.”

Trump’s remarks on Mexico came from a short sample of a longer interview available for paid subscribers on the O’Reilly website.

Mexican authorities reacted swiftly, with the foreign ministry saying that it has contacted US officials “to understand the meaning and scope of the remarks”.

Mexico will also “seek a high-level meeting as soon as possible to present Mexico’s position” and hear Washington’s views.

Mexico will seek talks to “make progress with reducing the flow of arms and money from the United States to organised crime in Mexico, in addition to precursor chemicals and drug precursors that cross Mexican territory en route to the United States”, a statement read.

Mexico has long complained about the flow of weapons bought in the United States and smuggled south of the border.

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