By Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has cautioned American firearms manufacturers that they could face legal action if the United States proceeds with labeling Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. She suggested that such a designation could open the door for lawsuits accusing gunmakers of contributing to cartel-related violence.
Sheinbaum stated that if the U.S. officially categorizes these criminal groups as terrorists, Mexico would go after American gun manufacturers. For someone who has insisted she is not in the pocket of the cartels, President Sheinbaum sure seems to have a strange way of showing it, according to CBS News.
“If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our U.S. lawsuit,” Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference.
A new charge could include alleged “complicity” of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.
An estimated 200,000 to half a million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year, “60 Minutes” reported in December.
A 2023 CBS Reports investigation found that dozens of cartel gunrunning networks, operating like terrorist cells, pay Americans to buy weapons from gun stores and online dealers all across the country, as far north as Wisconsin and even Alaska, according to U.S. intelligence sources. The firearms are then shipped across the southwest border through a chain of brokers and couriers.
That doesn’t particularly come across as a leader who isn’t in the pocket of the drug cartels.
The threat from Mexico comes as the State Department has begun carrying out President Trump’s executive order designating the cartels as terror organizations, noted The New York Times.
“The executive order called for the designations, saying the cartels ‘constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime’ and that the United States would “ensure the total elimination” of the groups.
Mr. Trump gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio two weeks to make the designations in consultation with several other cabinet members. The criminal groups and their members could be labeled foreign terrorist organizations or specially designated global terrorists, according to the order. The designations mean the U.S. government can impose broad economic sanctions on the groups and on people or entities linked to them.
The executive order referred in general to cartels in Mexico. It also specifically named Tren de Aragua, a group with roots in Venezuela, and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a gang founded by Salvadoran immigrants in the United States that plays a lesser role in the transnational drug trade.
Besides those two groups, the State Department plans to designate six Mexican cartels: the Sinaloa cartel, Jalisco New Generation cartel, the Northeast cartel, the Michoacán family, the United cartels and the Cartel del Golfo, according to U.S. officials.“
If the U.S. proceeds with labeling cartels as terrorist organizations, the move could have significant implications for bilateral relations. While it could justify deeper U.S. intervention in Mexico’s security crisis, Mexico’s government has historically opposed direct American military involvement in its drug war. At the same time, Mexico’s legal battle against gunmakers could set a precedent for holding corporations accountable for firearms that contribute to international conflicts.
Sheinbaum’s message signals that Mexico is prepared to escalate its challenge to the American firearms industry, intensifying an already complex dispute over the roots of cartel-driven violence.
Gun manufacturers aren’t the only American companies that the Mexican president has threatened. Earlier in the month, she warned that Mexico will pursue legal action against Google if its map for U.S.-based users continues to label the entire Gulf of America by its new name rather than its previous title as the “Gulf of Mexico.”
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