“They will be designated … I have been working on that for the last 90 days.”

President Donald Trump told Bill O’Reilly he wants the U.S. to designate the Mexican drug cartels as terrorists. It comes weeks after drug cartels killed nine Americans, including six children, in northern Mexico.

His decision pushed Mexican officials to announce they want to meet with the State Department to discuss the designation.

From Reuters:

“They will be designated … I have been working on that for the last 90 days. You know, designation is not that easy, you have to go through a process, and we are well into that process,” Trump said in an interview aired on Tuesday with conservative media personality Bill O’Reilly.

Trump justified his position because America is “losing 100,000 people a year to what is happening and what is coming through from on Mexico.” He also stressed that these cartels “have unlimited money” since “it is drug money and human trafficking money.”

The designation appears to have tied the hands of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador:

Soon afterwards, Mexico’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it would quickly seek a high-level meeting with U.S. State Department officials to address the legal designation as well as the flow of arms and money to organized crime. “The foreign minister will establish contact with his counterpart, Michael R. Pompeo, in order to discuss this very important issue for the bilateral agenda,” the ministry said.

Ebrard insisted the State Department does “not need to designate or classify a specific group as terrorist so that” the two countries can “act together against it.

After the murder, Trump offered help to the Mexican government to eliminate the drug cartel “monsters.”

López Obrador began his presidential administration by swearing the drug war over in Mexico. Unfortunately, the “murder rate has hit record highs this year.” People have said the president’s situation has not worked.

López Obrador described it as “a regrettable situation.” He also said Mexico doesn’t “need intervention.”

He added that Mexico already “declared war, and it didn’t work.” Therefore it “is not an option.”



