President Trump Says He Will Designate Mexico's Drug Cartels As Terrorist Organizations

Cartel gunmen clash with Mexican government forces in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico October 17, 2019. © REUTERS/Stringer

Reuters: Trump says U.S. will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Tuesday that 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, 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.

Once a group is designated as a terrorist organization, under U.S. law it is illegal for people in the United States to knowingly offer support and its members cannot enter the country and may be deported. Financial institutions that become aware they have funds connected to the group must block the money and alert the U.S. Treasury Department.

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Update #1: Trump Says U.S. Will Designate Mexican Cartels as Terror Groups (Bloomberg)
Update #2: Trump to declare Mexican cartels ‘terrorist groups’, won't rule out DRONE STRIKES (RT)

WNU Editor: This reminds me of the debate that many in Washington had in the 1990s on how to confront and defeat terror organizations like Al Qaeda. The strategy was to use the legal process to bring these terror leaders to justice. It did not work. Twenty years later I feel we are now at a similar point on how to battle and defeat Mexico's drug cartels .... because the legal process is not working. There is also the growing realization that Mexico is losing this war. When Mexican government forces in Culiacan were routed last month by cartel gunmen, that told everyone that the Mexican government had lost control and sovereignty of this part of Mexico. Bottom line, a new approach is needed. Will the U.S. go as far as launching drone strikes against Mexican cartel strongholds? We shall see. But President Trump's commitment to designate these vicious and brutal organizations as terror groups will change the dynamics on how the U.S. battles these criminal organizations, and there will be consequences when the first drone strike has been launched.