The scene from the US/Mexico border yesterday included special operations insertions.

There were armored MRAP’s, units on different types of all-terrain vehicles, and even a few horse mounted units.

The operation took the form of ‘mirror’ patrols along both sides of the border.

On the southern side, military gunners stood at the ready on truck-mounted weapons in the joint operation with US Forces.

The high-profile operation follows a recent renewed push by the Trump Administration aimed at cutting off the cartels at the knees.

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It looks as though the pressure applied by President Trump is starting to pay off considering Mexico actually agreed to field its military alongside the US against the cartels, as is being reported by the AFP:

US and Mexican armed forces performed exercises Thursday along the border near the cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.

The area is also where the Juarez Cartel operates, which Washington last month deemed a terrorist organization, adding it to a blacklist with others such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Numerous police and military vehicles from both countries traveled along the Rio Grande, a natural border closely monitored by the US.

The exercises also involved helicopters from which personnel descended by rope.

Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, Mexico has been pressed to tamp down the flow of migrants and drugs into the United States.

The combined show of force happened along a section of the border that has seen some of the worst cartel violence in recent years — on both sides of the border.

Check out some of the footage of what is being called a “Security Operation” shared on YouTube by an NBC News affiliate out of El Paso:

The increased aggressiveness of the cartels operating along the border was a key trigger for yesterday’s ‘mirror’ operation.

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That’s according to US Border Officials as quoted by Brooke Taylor, a Fox News correspondent who was on hand for yesterday’s exercise.

Here’s her video report linking the dual border op with new threats emerging from the cartels:

 

The link being drawn between terror groups and the use of drones mentioned towards the end of that report reflects the change in how the Trump Administration is treating cartels.

Gone are the days when the US dealt with cartels as purely a legal and law enforcement issue.

US authorities aren’t relinquishing the right to wield the law against cartels — but they are now emphasizing the military as the primary weapon in the fight against cartels as terrorist organizations.

US officials made that point very clear against the backdrop of yesterday’s US/Mexico border exercise, according to this report from the Fox News affiliate out of El Paso:

The joint-combined capabilities exercise comes as the Juarez Cartel has now been designated a foreign terrorist organization, officials said.

“Our message has been and has always been and will be very clear: if you have engaged with terrorist activity, if you are a member of a terrorist organization or if you have provided material to support these terrorist organizations, you will face severe legal and immigration consequences,” said Hamid Nikseresht, a special operations supervisor with U.S. Border Patrol.

“This is not rhetoric; this is the law. The operation is testimony to how serious and how united we are on this,” said Nikseresht.

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“I think the cartels understand that they are terrorists. Who needs to hear this message is those lower-level people who are helping those cartels. You are not being treated as someone helping a criminal organization; from now on, you are being treated as someone helping a terrorist organization,” said Border Patrol Chief Jesse Munoz of the El Paso Sector.

“This cartel [La Linea] has been terrorizing both sides of the border for decades. Leaders of those cartels have made billions of dollars trafficking from Mexico into the U.S.,” said Justin Simmons, the U.S. Attorney of the Western District of Texas. (Emphasis added.)

That doesn’t mean Claudia Sheinbaum has fully buckled — yet — to President Trump’s push to put the US military on the ground in a direct engagement against the cartels.

A year ago, the Mexican President had this to say in response to President Trump’s offer to help Mexico clean up the cartel mess:

But the Mexican President’s former reluctance seems to have dimmed a bit with the news of yesterday’s operation.

Particularly considering that it was primarily intended as a threatening provocation directly against the cartels.

All of this comes on the heels of the Trump Administration ratcheting up pressure even more in recent months against those same groups.

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued this press release related to yet another Executive Order which changed the official designation of two more cartels:

Terrorist Designations of the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras

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Today, the U.S. Department of State is designating the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

The Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras are violent narco-terrorist cartels that have committed numerous attacks against Americans, Mexican security forces, and civilians, including the 2019 massacre in Sonora of nine U.S. citizens – three adults and six children – killed by hitmen from the Juárez Cartel’s dominant faction La Línea.

The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation by keeping poison off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narco-terrorists. Today’s action taken by the State Department further demonstrates that the Trump Administration continues to deliver on its promises to the American people to dismantle narco-terrorist cartels, make American communities safer, and secure the border.

Terrorist designations expose and isolate entities and individuals, denying them access to the U.S. financial system and the resources they need to carry out attacks. As a result of actions taken today, all property and interests in property of those designated today that are in the United States or that are in possession or control of a U.S. person are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Moreover, designations can assist law enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies and governments.

Today’s actions are taken pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224. Foreign Terrorist Organization designations go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register.

And all that pressure may be adding up against Mexican President Sheinbaum.

Some of her own southern neighbors have just reversed course as well, vowing to work with President Trump on destroying the narco-terror networks in which the cartels operate.

Colombia just had a massive regime shift, with a new right-wing conservative President taking the reins of power.

One of his first actions has been to request closer cooperation with the US against the cartels, according to Secretary of War Hegseth:

Here’s a full screen version of that clip for convenience:

And here’s the full text from that post shared by journalist Eric Daugherty for added clarity:

BREAKING: DAYS after being inaugurated, Colombia’s new right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella has just AUTHORIZED joint US military operations to target the cartels

Colombia has ALSO joined President Trump’s Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition 🔥

HEGSETH: “I’m proud to announce that Colombia will join the A3C, becoming the 19th member, and through the newly inaugurated president, as our president likes to say, President El Tigre, Colombia has ALREADY requested that the Department of War join Colombia in its fight against narco-terrorism…”

“…authorizing joint military operations to DESTROY terrorist and terror networks.”

INCREDIBLE! Colombia is about to become a BIG ally, a massive shift from former left-wing President Petro.

The winds of political change can shift fast on these things.

Particularly when the one creating the political pressure is President Trump!

Within a year, Mexico’s President went from a complete cold shoulder when it came to President Trump’s desire to strike the cartels in Mexico…

To a sudden increase in joint-operations on the border in some of the worst areas.

Could we soon see a complete reversal in Mexico, just as we are now seeing in Colombia on that same issue of cooperation with President Trump?

Maybe — only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Hegseth and others are beating the drums of war in the direction of the cartels, pointing out their similarities to ISIS and al Qaeda more than the old thinking that characterized cartels as just another criminal gang:

Firebrand Stephen Miller was already raising the alarm months ago in an attempt to get our southern neighbors to wake up on this issue.

At a different regional meeting featuring military leaders from across Latin America, Miller pointed out why the room wasn’t filled instead with a bunch of lawyers — but rather, warfighters.

Hegseth also weighed in during that same conference, emphasizing the existential nature of the threat — as reported in March by Reuters:

White House official Stephen Miller told a ​gathering of Latin American military leaders on Thursday that drug cartels can only be defeated with military force.

“We have learned after decades of effort that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem,” ​Miller, the White House homeland security adviser, told Latin American defense leaders gathered at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters.

“The reason why ​this is a conference with military leadership and not a conference of lawyers is because these organizations can only ⁠be defeated with military power.”

Trump’s national security strategy, published in December, argued that the ​U.S. should revive ⁠the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine declaring the Western Hemisphere as Washington’s zone of influence. Hegseth joked this could be called the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’ to laughter in the crowd.

Addressing a region with many religions and ethnicities, Hegseth said it remained ​to be seen whether Latin American nations will remain Western and Christian.

“We face an essential test whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under ​God,” Hegseth said. (Emphasis added.)

Many of the bitter critics of the Trump Administration will see nothing but a dog and pony show in yesterday’s joint operation.

Granted — it was largely, and admittedly, for show.

But that performance came with a clear messaging to the cartels themselves.

Basically, don’t try us.

The clarity that officials like Miller and Hegseth bring to the table on these dangerous, well-funded, and well-armed groups operating in the Western Hemisphere is a refreshing sign of intelligent life in Washington DC — despite years of evidence to the contrary.

It’s my hope that President Trump continues to show the wherewithal to keep up the pressure, and ultimately bring hell down on the “ISIS and al Qaeda of the West”, as Hegseth characterized them.

Otherwise, the question of whether western nations continue as distinctly free and Christian may start to sound far less rhetorical in nature — even to those who haven’t yet had ears to hear that warning bell.

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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