NDTV | Published February 16, 2025
“If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our US lawsuit,” Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference.
Mexico City:
Mexico’s president on Friday warned US gunmakers they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington designates Mexican cartels as terrorist groups.
“If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our US lawsuit,” Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference.
A new charge could include alleged “complicity” of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.
Sheinbaum said the US Justice Department itself has recognized that “74 percent of the weapons” used by criminal groups in Mexico come from north of the border.
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the US State Department plans to classify criminal groups from Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela as “terrorist organizations.”
Mexico has already filed a lawsuit in the United States against US arms manufacturers and vendors, claiming $10 billion in damages for their alleged role in criminal violence in the country.
Earlier this month, Sheinbaum angrily rejected an accusation by the United States that her government has an alliance with drug cartels.
“We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” the president wrote on social platform X at the time.
“If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the US gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added.
Tensions between the closely connected neighbors soared after the White House said Trump would slap tariffs of 25 percent on both Mexican and Canadian goods because of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
The threatened tariffs have since been halted for 30 days.
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SOURCE: www.ndtv.com
RELATED: Mexico threatens lawsuits against US arms dealers if cartels designated as terrorists
President Claudia Sheinbaum is threatening legal action against U.S. gunmakers claiming they could be accomplices if their weapons are connected to crimes.
ARIZONA’S FAMILY | Published February 16, 2025
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — On his first day back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that designated cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
“There are multiple tools, criminal, administrative, financial. All those tools are available to federal, state, local law enforcement against cartels. There’s all kinds of federal crimes, there’s local crimes that the cartels violate. So they’re out there. What this does is broadens the scope,” explained Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Lance Leising.
Leising says the label could lead to people being charged with terrorist crimes and facing harsher punishments as well as financial and travel restrictions.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum is firing back, threatening legal action against U.S. gunmakers and stores if Mexican drug cartels are designated as terrorist groups.
“The U.S. Department of Justice has recognized that 74% of arms from criminal incidents are from the U.S. So, where does that leave the arms dealers? The lawyers are looking into this, they might be accomplices. This is one of the subjects we are looking at,” said Sheinbaum at a Friday press conference.
In 2022, the Mexican government sued U.S. gun stores, including five in Arizona, accusing them of participating in trafficking assault rifles and ammo to drug groups in Mexico.
According to the ATF, nearly 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico were traced back to the U.S. in 2023.
“The security, primarily, at the border is coming into the United States, not going into Mexico,” said Leising.
But why would Mexico object to cartels in their country being deemed terrorists? Leising says declaring cartels as FTOs is a step closer to U.S. military action in Mexico becoming a possibility.
“What I think Mexico is saying is we would like to deal with these cartels as a partner with the U.S. and deal with them through intelligence-based policing and maybe some military actions as well, but designating them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations to Mexico seems to be a step against their sovereignty and a step too far,” he said.
As of Saturday night, no cartels have officially been listed as FTOs on the U.S. Department of State’s website.
