The President of the United States, Donald Trump, launched a new criticism against the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, by insisting that the cartels dominate the country and asserting that he had proposed to act directly to “eradicate them”, an option that, he said, was rejected by the Mexican leader.
Her words resonated this Saturday during an address at the Shield of the Americas summit, held in Miami.
“I really like the president. (Mexico) She is a very good person. She has a beautiful voice. She is a beautiful woman. I said: ‘Let me eradicate the cartels, no, no, no, please, president’. We have to eradicate them. We have to put an end to them. The cartels govern Mexico. We cannot allow that,” Trump stated, according to the text provided by the user.
The statements from the American president combine personal praise for Sheinbaum with a direct remark about the security situation in Mexico.
Although he stated that the Mexican president is someone he likes "very much" and described her as "a very good person," Trump used that same passage to emphasize a tough-on-crime narrative against organized crime and to assert that the cartels control the country.
"Cool head," says Sheinbaum
The statements are set against the backdrop of another recent declaration by Trump, in which he stated that “the epicenter of cartel violence is Mexico.”
That assessment prompted a reaction from Sheinbaum, who announced that she would comment on the matter on Monday and urged to keep a "cool head."
With that response, the Mexican president avoided immediately escalating the verbal clash with Washington, at least according to the information contained in the provided material.
The statement also reinforces a common narrative of the U.S. president regarding border security and the role of cartels, although in this case, the emphasis was explicitly placed on Mexico and its president.
In that context, the political "dart" was not in the personal praise directed at Sheinbaum, but rather in the underlying accusation: that the cartels "govern Mexico" and that this situation can no longer be tolerated.
Trump's words open a new front of discursive tension between Washington and Mexico City, blending an apparent courtesy towards Sheinbaum with a severe disqualification of the Mexican state's ability to confront organized crime.
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