The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, signed an executive order on Monday declaring fentanyl and its chemical precursors as weapons of mass destruction, marking the most drastic step of his administration in the fight against drug trafficking and overdose deaths.
The measure, officially announced by the White House, instructs the departments of Justice, State, Treasury, Defense, and Homeland Security to deploy all available resources to target the cartels, their financial networks, and the international trafficking routes of the substance.
The document classifies fentanyl as “a lethal chemical threat” and states that “it has claimed more lives than many wars.”
According to the executive order, the Trump Administration aims to apply chemical weapons legislation to the production and trafficking of synthetic opioids, in order to impose stricter penalties and enhance international cooperation in intelligence matters.
"Illicit fentanyl resembles more of a chemical weapon than a drug," the text states, describing the narcotic as an instrument of "terror and mass death" used by international criminal networks.
The White House asserts that just two milligrams of the substance —equivalent to a few grains of salt— are enough to cause a fatal overdose.
The order instructs the Attorney General to file enhanced criminal charges, impose financial sanctions on banks and assets linked to trafficking, and coordinate with the Department of Defense on the use of national security resources in the event of a "chemical emergency."
Additionally, it calls for updating the chemical incident response protocols to include fentanyl as a priority threat.
The government also instructs the Department of Homeland Security to track transnational smuggling networks that use similar routes and methods to those of unconventional weapons proliferation.
Trump justified the measure by stating that “the nation is under chemical attack” and that “the cartels and complicit governments have turned fentanyl into a weapon against the American people.”
In its statement, the White House directly blames Mexico, China, and Canada for failing to control the flow of chemical precursors and for allowing the massive entry of the drug into the country.
The executive order is part of a broader offensive by the new Republican administration, which includes designating eight cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, among them Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.
Trump also recalled the signing of the HALT Fentanyl Act, which permanently incorporated fentanyl derivatives into the most restrictive category of U.S. drug legislation.
"Fentanyl is a weapon of war that kills our youth. We will not rest until we eradicate it from our streets," said the leader while announcing that his government "will not rule out military actions" to stop the responsible networks.
The decision marks a new chapter in the drug policy of the United States, shifting from viewing fentanyl as a public health issue to treating it as a national security threat, with direct military and diplomatic implications in Latin America.
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