MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that efforts to crack down on Mexican cartels and slow migration north were showing \u201ccompelling results” in an effort to head off intervention talk by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened that U.S. forces \u201cwill now start hitting land\u201d in Mexico targeting drug cartels, after the dramatic United States military raid on Venezuela<\/a> that deposed then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n Sheinbaum, a leftist who boasts of taking on chaos with a \u201ccool head,\u201d has sought to placate Trump and, unlike Maduro, has worked to build out a strong relationship between the Mexican and U.S. governments. The early January raid in Venezuela set much of Latin America on edge<\/a>, fueling concern that Trump could soon turn American forces on other nations, particularly Cuba and Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Thursday night, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ram\u00f3n de la Fuente released a joint statement after a phone call, saying they agreed \u201cmore must be done to confront shared threats.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheinbaum, mentioning the call on Friday in her morning press briefing, said that Mexico’s government had made significant progress cracking down on cartels, citing a steep drop in the homicide rate<\/a>, much lower fentanyl seizures by U.S. authorities at the border and sparse migration. She noted it was a joint effort with the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are very compelling results from the joint cooperation and the work that Mexico has been doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She reiterated her call for the United States to stop arms trafficking into Mexico and highlighted drug use in the U.S. as a key factor fueling cartel violence in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other side also has to do its part. This consumption crisis they have over there also has to be addressed from a public health perspective, through education campaigns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n