By Redacción
redaccion@latinocc.com
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said Friday that Mexico should follow El Salvador’s example in cracking down on drug cartels and accept U.S. help in combating organized crime, remarks that risk reigniting a sensitive debate over sovereignty.
Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City after stops in Panama and El Salvador, the Republican senator from Texas suggested Washington might act on its own if Mexico declines joint efforts.
“It would be far preferable for it to be cooperative, and so my hope is the government of Mexico will recognize that defeating these cartels is overwhelmingly in the interest of the citizens of Mexico,” Cruz said. “My message to the government of Mexico is accept our offer as a friend.”
Cruz declined to elaborate on what that offer entailed, though he mentioned it several times. His comments echoed past proposals from former President Donald Trump to deploy U.S. troops against Mexican cartels, an idea President Claudia Sheinbaum has flatly rejected.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with their military. We cooperate, we collaborate, but there will be no invasion. It’s off the table, absolutely off the table,” Sheinbaum said earlier this month.
Despite public friction, Mexico recently acknowledged requesting U.S. drone support in an organized crime probe in central Mexico. Cruz said he held talks with Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente and other officials, focusing on security and migration.
Mexico’s foreign ministry later stressed in a statement that the bilateral relationship rests on “shared responsibility, mutual trust, full respect of our sovereignty and cooperation without subordination.”
Argentina
President Javier Milei on Thursday rejected allegations that his sister and close aides profited from a bribery scheme in Argentina’s disability agency, calling the claims a politically motivated attack by his Peronist rivals.
Speaking before business leaders at a trade conference, Milei denounced the scandal as “this week’s operetta,” part of what he described as a long line of smear campaigns by the political “caste” he has vowed to dismantle.
“Like all previous schemes, it’s another lie,” Milei said, defending his sister and chief adviser, Karina Milei, who is accused in leaked audio recordings of receiving monthly kickbacks worth as much as $800,000 from the disability agency.
The controversy erupted after local media published audio purportedly featuring Diego Spagnuolo, the former head of the agency, discussing the alleged scheme. Milei dismissed Spagnuolo shortly after the recordings surfaced. Authorities have since raided homes and offices across Buenos Aires, though prosecutors have not filed charges.
“We regret that judges have to waste their time on the most rancid political tricks instead of pursuing crime,” Milei said.
The scandal has put the president on the defensive as Argentina prepares for two pivotal votes. Buenos Aires province, a Peronist stronghold, holds local and provincial elections Sept. 7. National midterms follow in October, when Milei hopes to expand his libertarian movement’s minority in the opposition-controlled Congress.
Both contests are expected to serve as a referendum on Milei’s tumultuous first year in office. The self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” has drawn praise for eliminating the fiscal deficit and slowing runaway inflation, but Argentines are grappling with stagnant growth, dwindling foreign currency reserves and wages that remain below pre-Milei levels.
Venezuela
President Nicolás Maduro warned Monday that Venezuela would “declare a republic in arms” if attacked by U.S. forces, as Washington increases its naval presence in the Caribbean to counter drug cartels.
Maduro characterized the buildup as “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat,” while announcing troop deployments along Venezuela’s coast and border with Colombia. His government has also called on civilians to enlist in a militia.
The U.S. Navy currently has at least four warships in the region, including the USS Gravely and USS Jason Dunham, and plans to add three amphibious assault ships carrying more than 4,000 sailors and Marines, according to a U.S. defense official.
Trump has pushed to use military power to disrupt the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into U.S. communities, blaming Latin American cartels for fueling crime and overdoses.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil dismissed the U.S. justification as a “false narrative,” citing a U.N. report that most cocaine leaves Colombia via the Pacific, not Venezuela. He warned fellow Latin American leaders that the deployment “threatens the entire region” and urged them to demand its end.
Maduro also repeated his claim of victory in last year’s disputed election, though the United States and other countries do not recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate president. He said his government maintains open lines of communication with the State Department and with Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, while lashing out at Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom he labeled a “warlord.”
