Cruz warned Mexico officials 'President Trump was going to' act if they didn't fight cartels

The sidesplitting of cause lord Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes whitethorn look similar a decisive triumph successful the warfare connected drugs. But successful Washington and Mexico City, it is besides being viewed arsenic thing much strategic: a disposable effect to mounting U.S. unit that has reshaped Mexico’s attack to the cartels.

The operation, carried retired by Mexican forces with U.S. quality support, underscores deepening coordination betwixt the 2 governments arsenic fentanyl trafficking remains a cardinal governmental and information contented successful the United States.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., told Fox News Digital helium had personally warned Mexican officials past twelvemonth that Washington expected stronger action. "In August of past year, I went down to Mexico. I took a travel to El Salvador, Panama, and Mexico, and I met with elder officials successful the Mexican government. The connection I conveyed to them was that they needed to get superior astir warring the cartels to halt the cause trafficking into America and to halt the quality trafficking into America. I told them that if they didn’t get serious, President Trump was going to."

"This was earlier the Maduro raid," Cruz added, "But the raid was not a astonishment — it was wide the President was going to bash what was indispensable to support America safe. I volition accidental that Mexico has pivoted sharply, and this is simply a existent manifestation of that. Thousands of Americans are live contiguous due to the fact that Trump was reelected and Republicans were enactment successful complaint of Congress. If we had kept the Democrats’ open-border policies successful place, determination would beryllium thousands much Americans dormant from murder, different convulsive crime, and cause overdoses."

A worker stands defender by a charred conveyance aft it was acceptable connected occurrence successful Cointzio, Michoacán state, Mexico, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, aft the decease of the person of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known arsenic "El Mencho." (AP Photo/Armando Solis) (AP Photo/Armando Solis)

Melissa Ford Maldonado, manager of Western Hemisphere astatine the America First Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital the onslaught reflects a broader displacement successful incentives driven by Washington.

"U.S. unit has perfectly shaped Mexico’s actions. Pressure is the lone happening that compels the Mexican authorities to act," Ford Maldonado said. "The Trump medication has been explicit successful linking commercialized leverage and adjacent the anticipation of unilateral enactment to Mexico’s show against the cartels, which has wholly changed the inducement operation successful Mexico City. When Washington demands disposable results, Mexico is nether unit to nutrient thing visible."

She said the sidesplitting itself fits that dynamic. "The sidesplitting of El Mencho is an effort to bash that," she said. "El Mencho was 1 of the astir wanted men successful the hemisphere, and Jalisco New Generation Cartel is among the astir convulsive and militarized cartels successful Mexico. His decease gives the Mexican authorities thing factual to constituent to — a high-value people — and assertion they’re delivering. But these are lone tactical wins, designed to relieve contiguous unit from Washington."

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A idiosyncratic sorts freshly printed copies of the paper PM bearing the header "U.S. mapped ‘El Mencho’ and Mexico delivered the last blow, Caught betwixt 2 fires," pursuing the sidesplitting of cause lord Nemesio Oseguera, known arsenic 'El Mencho,' successful a subject cognition connected Sunday, successful Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026.  (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

Ford Maldonado cautioned that high-profile takedowns person historically failed to nutrient lasting stability.

"The occupation is that tactical wins are not the aforesaid happening arsenic strategical change. Tactical wins aren’t capable anymore. If they were, the agelong database of past arrests and extraditions would person solved this already. I judge Washington is looking for thing deeper now: the disruption of the ecosystem that allows cartel powerfulness to thrive. Mexico has a occupation with corruption, territorial controlband governmental protection, and they indispensable code the governmental and fiscal networks that support the cartels successful power."

Smoke billows from burning vehicles amid a question of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways successful much than fractional a twelve states, pursuing a subject cognition successful which a authorities root said Mexican cause lord Nemesio Oseguera, known arsenic "El Mencho," was killed, successful Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026. (screen drawback obtained from a societal media video. @morelifediares via Instagram/Youtube/via Reuters)

She besides pointed to interior Mexican governmental dynamics that whitethorn complicate the narrative.

In June 2020, Omar García Harfuch, past Mexico City’s main of police, survived an assassination effort wide attributed to El Mencho. García Harfuch is present Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection and oversaw the cognition that killed him.

"Therefore, determination whitethorn beryllium different motives involved," Ford Maldonado said. "Jalisco New Generation Cartel  has been successful a longstanding and precise bloody rivalry with the Sinaloa cartel, which immoderate accidental is the accepted cartel spouse of the MORENA regime. So, if the Mexican authorities goes aft the rivals of a cartel it’s agelong been accused of tolerating oregon moving alongside, that unsocial doesn’t beryllium it has genuinely breached with cartel-state collusion."

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Smoke billows from burning vehicles amid a question of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways successful much than fractional a twelve states, pursuing a subject cognition successful which a authorities root said Mexican cause lord Nemesio Oseguera, known arsenic "El Mencho," was killed, successful Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026.  (Screen drawback obtained from a societal media video. @morelifediares via Instagram/Youtube/via Reuters )

For now, she said, the sidesplitting is important but not definitive.

"Unfortunately, past has shown that sidesplitting a cartel person seldom produces lasting stability. It disrupts bid and power temporarily," she said. "Whether this is simply a existent turning constituent depends connected what comes next, specifically, whether enforcement moves beyond high-profile cartel leaders and begins to face the governmental and fiscal networks that prolong them. Until then, this is significant, but it’s not transformative."

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