Overview
- In a Fox News interview, President Trump said the U.S. will "start now hitting land" against cartels and asserted that "the cartels are running Mexico."
- The White House has offered no timetable, targets, or legal basis for land operations, which would follow months of maritime strikes that reporting says killed more than 100 people and the recent capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated that Mexico rejects foreign military intervention, while noting ongoing bilateral security coordination and efforts against drug labs.
- The prospect of land strikes has triggered legal and diplomatic scrutiny, with a Senate war-powers move to limit further action in Venezuela and U.N. experts condemning the Venezuela raid as a violation of international law.
- Trump’s claims that 97% of drug inflows by water were stopped and that cartels kill 250,000–300,000 Americans annually were reported without independent corroboration, and coverage notes those death figures conflict with official counts.