Mexico Rejected US Proposal of Using its Soil.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on 18th November have outrightly rejected the idea of allowing U.S. military strikes against drug cartels on Mexican soil, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “OK” with authorising such operations to stop drugs from entering the United States.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said she has repeatedly asserted her country’s stand point, to Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that Mexico will cooperate on intelligence but “does not accept any intervention by a foreign government”.

Earlier, on Monday 17th November, Trump had reignited tensions when he said he was willing to “do whatever we have to do to stop drugs”, adding that he was “not happy with Mexico”.

Despite Sheinbaum’s efforts to curb immigration toward the U.S., as well as tackle the drug cartels operating in her country, tensions remain with the Trump administration, which in recent weeks has carried out attacks on alleged drug smugglers elsewhere in the region, namely those it says have come out of Venezuela and are headed for American soil. The exchange came as diplomats from both countries were already working to clarify a separate border incident involving U.S.-linked contractors who erected Department of Defense warning signs on a beach in northeast Mexico.

The signs, driven into the sand near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico, caused a stir when witnesses said men in a boat arrived at the local beach known as Playa Bagdad and erected them. The signs, in English and Spanish, read “Warning: Restricted Area” and explain that it was Department of Defence property and had been declared restricted by “the commander”. It said there could be no unauthorised access, photography or drawings of the area.

Mexico contacted its consulate in Brownsville, Texas, and then the U.S. embassy in Mexico City. Eventually, it was determined that contractors working for some U.S. government entity had placed the signs, Sheinbaum said. “But the river has changed its course, it breaks loose and according to the treaty you have to clearly demarcate the national border”, Sheinbaum said during her daily press briefing.

The area is close to SpaceX Starbase, which sits adjacent to Boca Chica Beach on the Texas side of the Rio Grande. The facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program are under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA. In June, Sheinbaum said the government was looking into contamination from the SpaceX facility after pieces of metal, plastic and rocket pieces were reportedly found on the Mexican side of the border following the explosion of a rocket during a test.

The area also carries the added sensitivity of Trump’s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, which Mexico has also rejected.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a press briefing on Tuesday: “Trump has suggested it on various occasions or he has said, ‘we offer you a United States military intervention in Mexico, whatever you need to fight the criminal groups. But I have told him on every occasion that we can collaborate, that they can help us with information they have, but that we operate in our territory, that we do not accept any intervention by a foreign government”.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday: “Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? It’s OK with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs. I looked at Mexico City over the weekend, there’s some big problems over there“.

While Trump has floated strikes on Mexico, taking the U.S. fight onto foreign soil without Sheinbaum’s permission could be seen as an act of war. For now, the focus appears to be on hitting alleged smuggling boats at sea.

Team Maverick