Claudia Sheinbaum denies report of U.S. military action inside Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said unilateral U.S. military action inside Mexico “won’t happen” on Tuesday.

Her comments come after NBC News published a report Monday, which said the U.S. had begun detailed planning for a new anti-cartel mission inside Mexico, including sending troops and intelligence officers to the country.

“It won’t happen. We have no reports that it will happen… And besides, we don’t agree to it,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference when asked about the NBC report.

The report claimed that early stages of training had already begun as well as discussions about the scope of the “potential mission.” It also indicated that U.S. troops would operate under “the authority of the U.S. intelligence community, known as Title 50 status.”

It did note that a final decision on the mission had not been made and the details came from “two U.S. officials and two former senior U.S. officials familiar with the effort.”

This isn’t the first time Sheinbaum has rejected unilateral U.S. military action inside Mexico.

In April, Sheinbaum said the country would categorically reject any unilateral U.S. military action in Mexico and warned that such measures “would not resolve anything” amid threats from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to use drone strikes against drug cartels.

Sheinbaum spoke to reporters on April 8 during a daily news conference and answered questions about another NBC News report that claimed Trump’s administration is considering drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico to combat trafficking across the shared border.

“The people of Mexico will not, under any circumstances, accept intervention, interference, or any other act from abroad,” Sheinbaum told reporters.

“We do not agree with any kind of intervention or interference,” Sheinbaum added. “This has been very clear: We coordinate, we collaborate, [but] we are not subordinate and there is no meddling in these actions.”

NBC News cited six current and former U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence officials with knowledge of the matter. It said officials were saying that the Trump administration was weighing drone strikes in Mexico “to combat criminal gangs trafficking narcotics across the southern border,” adding that no decision had been made.

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Sheinbaum stated that the U.S. and Mexico have a good ongoing dialogue on security issues and that she did not think the U.S. would pursue such unilateral action.

In February, Sheinbaum said that Mexico will not tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty after the Trump administration moved to formally designate eight Latin American crime organizations as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

“This cannot be an opportunity for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said during a press briefing on Feb. 20. “With Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”

“We want to be clear given this designation that we don’t negotiate our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum added. “There can be no interference or subordination.

“Both countries want to reduce the consumption of drugs and the trafficking of illegal drugs.”

Sheinbaum said her government was not consulted by the United States in its decision to include Mexican cartels on a list of global terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel, United cartel, the Michoacana family and the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

— With files from Reuters