How Mexico has become the “enemy” of America’s Republicans
More than once, as president, Donald Trump mused about firing missiles at the drug labs of Mexican cartels. “No one would know it was us,” he declared, before being talked out of the idea. Mark Esper, the then defence secretary, recounted the incident in his memoirs published last year, astonished that bombing a neighbour could be seriously thought of.
Now the extraordinary is becoming more commonplace as Republicans argue that greater use of military force, or the threat of it, can help control America’s southern border and curb the smuggling of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is produced illegally in Mexico.
One congressman, Michael McCaul of Texas, has introduced a bill to classify fentanyl as a “chemical weapon”. Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, is pushing one to designate Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”. Dan Crenshaw and Mike Waltz, congressmen from Texas and Florida respectively, have proposed another that would authorise “all necessary and appropriate force” against foreign states, organisations or people linked to trafficking fentanyl.
2023-07-20 08:21:30
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