{"id":31253,"date":"2023-10-08T17:33:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T23:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/some-gop-candidates-propose-acts-of-war-against-mexico-to-stop-fentanyl\/"},"modified":"2023-10-08T23:33:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T23:33:19","slug":"some-gop-candidates-propose-acts-of-war-against-mexico-to-stop-fentanyl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/some-gop-candidates-propose-acts-of-war-against-mexico-to-stop-fentanyl\/","title":{"rendered":"Some GOP candidates propose acts of war against Mexico to stop fentanyl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Attorney
Attorney General Merrick Garland accompanied by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram, looks at photographs of people who had died from drugs during the Second Annual Family Summit on Fentanyl at DEA Headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. (Jose Luis Magana\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Jose Luis Magana<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

MIAMI \u2013 Ron DeSantis wants suspected drug smugglers at the U.S.-Mexico border to be shot dead. Nikki Haley promises to send American special forces into Mexico. Vivek Ramaswamy has accused Mexico\u2019s leader of treating drug cartels as his \u201csugar daddy\u201d and says that if he is elected president, \u201cthere will be a new daddy in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 nomination and long the person who has shaped his party\u2019s rhetoric on the border, has often blamed Mexico for problems in the United States and promises new uses of military force and covert action if he returns to the White House.<\/p>\n

Many of the GOP presidential candidates say they would carry out potential acts of war against Mexico in response to the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids<\/a>. More than 75,000 people in the U.S. died last year from overdoses of synthetic opioids, an annual figure more than 20 times higher than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got politicking on this side. And then on the Mexican side of the border, you\u2019ve got a president who is turning a blind eye to what\u2019s going on in Mexico and who has completely gutted bilateral collaboration with the United States,\u201d said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico\u2019s ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013. \u201cThat\u2019s a very combustible mixture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea Thomas\u2019 daughter died at age 32 after taking half of a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl that looked like her prescription pills for abdominal pain. Thomas started the foundation Voices for Awareness in Grand Junction, Colorado, to raise the alarm about fentanyl.<\/p>\n

Thomas says people she knows are interested in what the candidates are proposing and feel that President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has not properly responded to the crisis. In a letter<\/a> to the presidential candidates, Thomas and an assembly of other groups urge the politicians to do \u201call that can be done\u201d to stop the manufacturing and smuggling of the drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis drug is like no drug we have ever seen before,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need some strong measures. We have no more time to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats also face immense political pressure on border issues<\/a> heading into next year\u2019s election. The White House has funded national programs to reduce fentanyl overdoses and sanctioned Chinese companies blamed for importing the chemicals used to make the drug.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday, the White House said the administration imposed targeted sanctions as recently as last week and blamed Republicans in Congress for blocking a request for an additional $800 million to fight fentanyl trafficking, which includes money for law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Mexico has failed to address its problem with fentanyl production and trafficking. Mexican President Andres Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador repeatedly denies his country is producing the synthetic opioid<\/a> despite enormous evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n

Border agents seized nearly 13 tons of fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border between September 2022 and August, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.<\/p>\n

At the second GOP primary debate late last month, candidates reiterated that they would use military forces to go after drug gangs in Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs commander in chief, I\u2019m going to use the U.S. military to go after the Mexican drug cartels,\u201d said DeSantis, the Florida governor. He has promised<\/a> that people suspected of smuggling drugs across the southern border would end up \u201cstone cold dead.\u201d That raises the prospect of border agents being authorized to shoot people on sight before any investigation into whether those people were carrying drugs.<\/p>\n

U.S. government data undercuts the claim that people seeking asylum and other border crossers are responsible for drug trafficking. About 90% of fentanyl seizures were made at official land crossings, not between crossings where people entered illegally. At a hearing in July, James Mandryck, a CBP deputy assistant commissioner, said 73% of fentanyl seizures at the border since the previous October were smuggling attempts carried out by U.S. citizens, with the rest being done by Mexican citizens.<\/p>\n

A study published last year from U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies called Mexico the \u201cprincipal source\u201d of fentanyl, with cartels manufacturing the drug using precursor chemicals largely smuggled from China. But it noted that the crisis could not be resolved without curbing addiction in the U.S. that creates overwhelming demand for illegal opioids.<\/p>\n

Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018 campaigning with a motto of \u201chugs, not bullets,\u201d and for four years has shredded his predecessors\u2019 prosecution of the drug war. Experts agree that wide swaths of Mexico are under the de facto control of drug cartels. Lopez Obrador is already sensitive to what he considers U.S. \u201cinterference\u201d in Mexico, suggesting that foreign agents were \u201cspying\u201d as they built a fentanyl smuggling case against members of the Sinaloa drug cartel announced earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Lopez Obrador is defensive about U.S. criticism of his government\u2019s failure to stop the flow of fentanyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a kind of competition to see who is the most ridiculous, who is most brazen to threaten Mexico, to blame Mexico,\u201d he said at a recent news conference. \u201cThey are nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico will elect a new president next year, and the opposition candidate recently told Univision that she would accept more U.S. agents and help. But when asked about military operations, X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez said, \u201cWe have to get serious. We have to be smart with proposals that are clear and strong and not just to get votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. has invaded Mexican territory before and tried to overthrow governments through Latin America for its own policy goals.<\/p>\n

In 1846, seeking to expand U.S. borders after supporting the annexation of Texas, President James K. Polk called on Congress to declare war with Mexico. The war ended with Mexico agreeing to cede 55% of its territory, including present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.<\/p>\n

In 1914, the U.S. invaded the port of Veracruz after the arrest of U.S. soldiers. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson deployed tens of thousands of troops in response to an attack by Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in Columbus, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

More recently, Trump promised to build a southern border wall to stop illegal immigration \u2014 and make Mexico pay for it. While he was president, the U.S. would build or refurbish about 500 miles of wall on the more than 2,000-mile border.<\/p>\n

Mexico never paid for any sections of wall. And border crossings would repeatedly hit record highs throughout Trump\u2019s presidency and during Biden\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

\"People
People protest in front of the White House to raise awareness of opioid-related deaths on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta)<\/span>Manuel Balce Ceneta<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE \u2013 A vial containing 2mg of fentanyl, is displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Testing and Research Laboratory in Sterling, Va., Aug. 9, 2016. The US is announcing a series of indictments and sanctions against 14 people and 14 firms across China and Canada related to the import of fentanyl into the United States. It's one of the biggest actions the Biden administration has taken against the trafficking of the deadly drug. (AP Photo\/Cliff Owen, File)<\/span>Cliff Owen<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE \u2013 Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, left, argues a point with business owner Vivek Ramaswamy, right, between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, during a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by FOX Business Network and Univision, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill, File)<\/span>Mark J. Terrill<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE \u2013 Former President Donald Trump arrives at a commit to caucus rally, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Trump, the Republican front-runner and long the person who has shaped his party's rhetoric on the border, has often blamed Mexico for problems in the U.S. and promises new uses of military force and covert action if he returns to the White House. (AP Photo\/Charlie Neibergall, File)<\/span>Charlie Neibergall<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE \u2013 Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks at the National Palace in Mexico City, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo\/Fernando Llano, File)<\/span>Fernando Llano<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies call Mexico the \u2018principal source\u2019 of fentanyl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[969,2025],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-fentanyl"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31253"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}