US Representatives Propose Military Intervention in Mexico

The Mexican government criticized US officials who proposed to solve the latter country’s fentanyl crisis by having US President Joe Biden authorize military action against Mexican cartels.

The proposal was presented in January 2023 by Republican representatives Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Michael Waltz of Florida in the US House of Representatives and passed nearly unnoticed yet regained attention due to a recent increase in fentanyl trafficking. 

US Attorney General Merrick Garland accused Mexican drug cartels of purposely causing a fentanyl crisis in the US and urged the Mexican government to come up with better strategies to combat the problem.  "It is a horrible epidemic but it is an epidemic that has been unleashed on purpose by the Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation cartels. [The Mexican government] is helping us, but they could do much more. There is no doubt about that," said Garland.

Ricardo Monreal, President of the Political Coordination Board, the Mexican Senate, rejected the initiative and stressed that such proposals do more harm than good in the fight against organized crime. "As the Mexican Senate’s majority leader, I express my rejection of and concern regarding the initiative. This initiative is an example of the politicization of the fight against drug trafficking and, at the same time, represents a regression to the times of interventionism," said Monreal.

President López Obrador also criticized the US proposal and agreed that it would be interventionist. “It is not even acceptable for them to define whether a country has terrorism. Who gives them that power? It is their mania to be the world’s government. It is even worse that they want to use military force to intervene in the public life of another country, which is to say, to invade another country with the excuse that they are targeting terrorist drug traffickers (…) We must reject all these statements of interventionism,” said López Obrador.

The fentanyl crisis represents one of the most critical healthcare issues for both Mexico and the US and has been a key discussion topic in the latest meetings between both countries. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid considered 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin and 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. In 2021, more than 70,000 deaths in the US were related to fentanyl. In 2022, fentanyl deaths accounted for 66 percent of drug-related deaths in the US. Authorities said the cost of this drug is at its lowest point. Consequently, its consumption is increasing in Mexico and the US. In 2022, authorities from both countries agreed to jointly launch a campaign against its use and trafficking.