Former President Donald Trump has vowed to send assassination squads of the United Stated special forces into Mexico on covert missions against the head of drug cartels that are allegedly operating from the country.
According to a report by US media, Trump who is seeking re-election in the upcoming presidential polls put forward the idea of sending assassination squads as he believes that the US military has tougher killers to wage war on the Mexico’s drug cartels amid growing fentanyl crisis.
During his first term as the President of the United States, Trump even thought it was possible to bomb the cartels drug labs and then potentially pin strikes on another country, according to his former defence secretary Mark Esper. While campaigning for his second term, the Trump has vowed to make appropriate use of Special Forces, Cyber Crimes and other covert and overt operations to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure and operations.
During some conversations with his allies, Trump likened these proposals to the 2019 military raid that he ordered which resulted in the death of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr-al-Baghdadi, US media reported. Talking to his close allies, Trump floated the ideas of using special operating units that would carry out assassinations of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels, with to without consent of the its government.
During discussions with allies, Trump questioned why these assassination missions have no ben done before he argued that the eliminating heads of the cartels would go a long way toward hobbling their operations and striking fears into the hearts of the kingpins. He also advised an ally to make and develop a kill list of drug lords that US Special Forces might use to target or seize.
Trump, however, did not reveal the details of his plans including how many such squads or troops he would be willing to send to Mexico and the level of cooperation with the Mexican government. His spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on this issue, the US media said in its report.
All these proposals were denounced by Mexican president, Andres Lopez Obrador, who called it as an insult to Mexico. “We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less than a government’s armed forces to intervene, he said.
