Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) is throwing his full support behind President Donald Trump's latest warning to Mexico: either confront the drug cartels operating within your borders, or the United States will do it for you.
The back-and-forth between Washington and Mexico City over drug cartels escalated again this week, after President Trump suggested during a public address that the United States may deploy ground forces into Mexico if its government refuses to confront cartel organizations directly.
Rep. Hamadeh jumped on X to make his position clear. "President Trump gets it," he wrote. "Mexican drug cartels aren't just criminals. They're narco-terrorists waging war and pushing poison on the American people. If Mexico won't eliminate them, we will."
Trump's speech added fresh fuel to an already tense relationship between the two countries. The president pointed to what he described as a 97 percent drop in smuggling by sea following U.S. military strikes on cartel vessels, and argued that sending ground troops would actually be a simpler undertaking.
"If they are not going to do the job, we are going to do the job," he said.
Mexico's Response
Those words did not sit well in Mexico City. President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly made clear that American boots on Mexican soil are not something she will accept under any circumstances.
Reports show she had actually addressed the subject just a day earlier, delivering a May 5 speech heavy with nationalistic sentiment that signaled Mexico would resist outside interference.
She declared that "no foreign power is going to tell Mexicans how to govern ourselves," adding that those who seek foreign support "are destined for defeat." She also pushed back against any suggestion that she was yielding to outside pressure, saying, "those who think the president is bowing down: they are destined for defeat.
Recent Indictment
However, the tension goes beyond mere rhetoric. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and nine of his associates on drug trafficking and weapons charges, alleging they had worked alongside the Sinaloa Cartel.
Gov. Rocha Moya belongs to Mexico's ruling MORENA party, and officials there have been pushing back hard against American extradition efforts.
Prosecutors have also hinted that more indictments are on the way, a prospect that has rattled Mexico's political establishment.
Hamadeh has long argued for a harder line against cartels, and this week's developments gave him another opportunity to make that case publicly.
