In recent days, the Trump administration has ramped up CIA surveillance drone flights over Mexico, formally designated drug cartels as “foreign terrorist” groups and floated the possibility of deploying troops there to fight organized crime.

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explore designating major cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Early this month, Rubio moved to designate six Mexican cartels and two other groups as FTOs.

The State Department has declared several Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk floating the idea of drone strikes