Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday said she ordered her country’s top diplomat to speak with Trump administration officials about strengthening relations with the U.S. after President Donald Trump suggested U.S. forces would start hitting drug cartels on "land."
"Yesterday, I asked Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente to make direct contact with the [U.S.] secretary of state and, if necessary, speak with President Trump to strengthen coordination," Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference.
Trump on Thursday told Fox News the U.S. has “knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels."
"The cartels are running Mexico — it’s very, very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country," he added.
His comments come less than a week after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a military operation in Caracas.
When asked by CNBC about Trump’s comment on Fox News, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly in an email said, "The administration is reasserting and enforcing the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, control migration, and stop drug trafficking."
"The President has many options at his disposal to continue to protect our homeland from illicit narcotics that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year," she added.
Sheinbaum earlier this week condemned the capture of Maduro. She has repeatedly warned that any unilateral military action by the U.S. in Mexico would constitute a grave violation of the nation’s sovereignty.
"It is necessary to reaffirm that in Mexico the people rule, and that we are a free and sovereign country — cooperation, yes; subordination and intervention, no," Sheinbaum said.
Security analysts and Mexican officials say behind the scenes, Sheinbaum is likely to move even closer to Washington after the U.S. attack on Venezuela, hoping that increasingly tight bilateral security cooperation will stave off unilateral U.S. military action.
On Thursday, she touted preliminary data that showed homicides have fallen by 40% since she took office in October 2024.
She has also sought to placate Washington with two mass expulsions to the U.S. of alleged high-level cartel operatives and by undertaking a year-long military offensive against the Sinaloa Cartel.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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