a powerful message for President Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a>, who had not made the direct confrontation with the cartels a priority. She likely saw them as part of the structure L\u00f3pez Obrador had built for the first stage of the so-called Fourth Transformation, and believed it best not to disturb them beyond occasional arrests and seizures.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSheinbaum had been inclined to continue that routine agenda in dealings with her main trading partner. However, Trump\u2019s victory and his increasingly aggressive rhetoric against the cartels led to a direct confrontation with criminal organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump increased the pressure by deploying spy ships in Pacific waters off the Baja California coast. Mexican skies saw surveillance aircraft capable of capturing images of homes in the Golden Triangle\u2014the border region between the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Durango, traditionally a haven for drug lords. Additionally, the U.S. security agency presence in Mexico was reinforced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, the indulgent and criminal \u201chugs, not bullets\u201d policy began to fade, leaving cartel leaders stunned. They have responded with a forward-escape strategy, creating an atmosphere of persecution and violence across different regions of the country\u2014costing thousands of Mexican lives and pushing the public\u2019s fear perception beyond 61%, according to INEGI. The myth L\u00f3pez Obrador promoted\u2014that \u201cfentanyl is not produced in Mexico\u201d\u2014collapsed when Omar Garc\u00eda Harfuch, the Public Security Secretary, recently stated that more than 800 laboratories have been destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem, however, isn\u2019t just the cartels and their capacity to produce and distribute drugs on American streets. It also includes the entire political scaffolding that enables the business to function efficiently\u2014something it could not have achieved without the complicity of politicians with drug lords or intermediaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while one might think Trump would be pleased with the results of his pressure, that\u2019s not the case. He bluntly stated that the Mexican government merely wants to make him \u201chappy\u201d\u2014by sealing the northern border, making arrests and deporting drug lords, destroying labs, and even allowing U.S. agents to collaborate with Mexico\u2019s national security system. They\u2019ve even permitted spy flights and menacing naval patrols in Pacific waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even with these surprising results, the pressure continues\u2014both publicly and diplomatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kristi Noem, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, recently met with President Sheinbaum at the National Palace. Beyond the formal courtesies, the headline came when Noem, upon returning to the U.S., revealed that she had handed Sheinbaum a list of requests to continue strengthening the good relationship between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Sheinbaum was stunned when tariffs became a reality. Although Mexico and Canada weren\u2019t mentioned in Trump\u2019s public list of targeted countries, that was because the tariffs had already been decided before the press conference: a 25% tariff would apply to imports of steel and aluminum, as well as to products not covered by the USMCA\u2014representing roughly 50% of Mexico\u2019s exports to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In short, Trump\u2019s pressure on Mexico has altered the policy upheld by Obradorism and now operates under the logic of Trump-style hard negotiation: \u201cIf the adversary yields at the first push, you can keep pressuring and gain more.\u201d Some say that the list handed over through diplomatic channels includes the names of many currently serving politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s the reality, amid an anti-crisis narrative that tries to sell the idea that defeats are victories and losses are gains. And now, the time has come to find out where President Sheinbaum draws her red line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*Machine translation proofread by Jana\u00edna da Silva.<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The pressure exerted by Trump on Mexico has prompted a shift in the L\u00f3pez Obrador government’s anti-drug strategy, which now operates under the logic of negotiation imposed by Trumpism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":536,"featured_media":48062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16872,16814,16815],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mexico-en","8":"category-narcotrafico-es-en","9":"category-crimen-organizado-en","10":"tag-debates"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48070"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=48070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}