Mexico City – US Sen. Ted Cruz said Friday that Mexico should take pages from El Salvadoran books when cracking down on drug cartels and take offers to the United States to combat organized crime.
A Republican senator from Texas who stopped in Mexico after visiting Panama and El Salvador this week appeared to imply that the US could take some action against the drug cartel if Mexico refused to act together.
“It would be much more desirable for it to be cooperative, so my hope would recognize that the Mexican government will overwhelmingly beat these cartels for the benefit of Mexican citizens,” Cruz said at a press conference. “My message to the Mexican government is to accept my offer as a friend.”
Cruz did not respond when asked to elaborate on the offer. He mentioned it many times at press conferences.
Cruz's proposal and previous offers by President Donald Trump for US military intervention have increased Mexico's sensitivity to its sovereignty.
Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum rejected Trump's offer earlier this year and sent troops to fight cartels his administration had declared as a foreign terrorist organization.
“The United States is not planning to come to Mexico with the military,” Sinbaum said earlier this month. “We work together, we work together, but there's no invasion. It's off the table and absolutely off the table.”
There is evidence of collaboration. Earlier this month, the Mexican government confirmed it had requested assistance from US government drones in an organized crime investigation in Central Mexico.
Cruz said he met Mexico's Foreign Secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente and other officials.
“In this dialogue, it was emphasized that Mexico's relationship with the United States is permanently based on the principle of shared responsibility, mutual trust, and full respect for our sovereignty and undependent cooperation,” the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said of X.
Faced with the threat of tariffs from the Trump administration, Sinbaum was more aggressive than his predecessor, chasing the Mexican cartel. This month, her administration sent dozens of cartel leaders to the United States, and Mexico has long worked with the US to slow down the flow of its northward movement, with very few illegal crossings.
Nonetheless, cartel violence continues to plague Mexico. Cruz suggested on Friday that Mexico should take a more burdensome approach to criminal violence, as did Salvadoran President Naive Buquere.
Salvador's populists have halted their main constitutional rights and jailed more than 1% of the country's population, defeating the country's gangs.
This approach encouraged accusations that Bukere was violating human rights and putting Salvador's democracy at risk, but the decline in crime has made the president extremely popular in his home and become a kind of folk hero for the American right wing.