Thursday, January 8th saw U.S. president Donald Trump announce that land strikes against drug cartels were on the way, following maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea—without providing further details.
Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity in an interview on Fox News that aired on Thursday night
We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico.
Trump’s comments come after the surprise capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro last weekend, the culmination of months of mounting U.S. military and economic pressure on the leftist leader.
As part of that campaign, the United States has killed more than 100 people in strikes on drug boats since September, and Trump has also said that his forces conducted a land strike on a docking area for such vessels in Venezuela.
Strikes on cartels in Mexico would mark a significant U.S. military escalation, however.
Meanwhile, Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro agreed with Trump to take “joint action” against cocaine-smuggling guerrillas on the border with Venezuela, Bogota’s interior minister said on Thursday, January 8th.
The two leaders held their first phone call on Wednesday, de-escalating tensions after Trump had threatened military action against Colombia.
Colombia and Venezuela share a porous 2,200-kilometre border where various armed groups vie for control of the profits from drug trafficking, illegal mining, and smuggling.
