Why Latin Americans are embracing mano duro security policy

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly insisted that she will not allow the US military to fight drug cartels inside her country's borders.

“That's not going to happen,” Sheinbaum said last month after President Trump once again threatened such an operation. “We don’t want any foreign government to interfere.”

But while Sheinbaum passionately defends her country's sovereignty, recent polls and interviews across Mexico show that significant numbers of people here actually welcome greater American involvement in their country's fight against organized crime, including the presence of American troops on the ground.

Just over half of Mexicans surveyed by polling firm Mitofsky. said they believe that “US authorities must enter Mexican territory to fight organized crime and arrest its leaders.” A third of respondents vote El Financerio said it supports the deployment of US troops in Mexico to fight cartels.

“It’s very embarrassing to say that Mexico can’t do this alone,” said Jose Santillan, a 38-year-old graphic designer from Mexico City. “But the situation with the drug cartels is clearly out of control. To counter them, you need a powerful army. And the United States has it.”

USA already unleashed his army on suspected drug traffickers in the Pacific and Caribbean, leaving at least 83 people dead. For months, Trump and his team have discussed the prospect of US strikes against suspected criminals and drug labs in Mexico.

“We know the address of every drug lord,” Trump said in November. He did not say whether he would conduct strikes unilaterally, without Sheinbaum's permission.

The threats anger many in Mexico, where resentment remains. past American invasionsincluding during the War of 1846, which ended with Mexico ceding more than half of its territory to the United States, including California.

However, others here are so desperate for peace that they are willing to consider any proposals.

Nearly two decades since Mexican soldiers were first deployed to fight the cartels, drug trafficking today continues at record levels, violence has spread to previously peaceful parts of the country, and crimes such as extortion have soared.

“Organized crime has expanded its reach and affects a larger percentage of the population,” said Jorge Buendia, a political scientist.

Many Mexicans view their officials as too corrupt or too weak to fight organized crime.

“People want security, and funds are secondary,” Buendia said.

“People live in constant fear,” said Ricardo Marcial Perez, 42, who said people in his hometown in Guerrero state must pay protection fees to criminal groups or risk being killed. “Let the Americans come so that this hell that many families in Mexico are going through can finally end,” he said.

Public opinion polls in the Americas show many favor tough security strategies and support tougher penalties for suspected criminals. President of El Salvador Naib Bukele has gained a regional following for his no-holds-barred approach to reducing crime, jailing tens of thousands of people he says are gang members without due process.

Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Mexico's violence-plagued Michoacan state, gained national support and comparisons to Bukele when he called on local law enforcement to use lethal force against suspected criminals who were resisting arrest.

Manzo is shocking public murder Last month, suspected cartel members drew condolences from senior Trump administration officials and turned him into a martyr across Mexico. For some here, his killing was another sign that only U.S. intervention can pull Mexico out of its security quagmire.

“Help from the United States … would go a long way toward eradicating all these problems,” said a government official in Michoacán, who requested anonymity. But, he warned, any US assistance must be limited in scope: “We don't want foreign invasion. We want them to help us.”

Americans have been involved in the fight against organized crime in Mexico for years, with a small number of soldiers, as well as CIA and law enforcement agents sent here to assist their Mexican counterparts in intelligence activities. Washington has funneled about $3 billion in security assistance under a 2007 bilateral agreement known as the Merida Initiative, donating helicopters, training police and helping to overhaul Mexico's notoriously ineffective justice system.

Sheinbaum's predecessor as president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador broke with Merida, saying Mexico did not need cooperation “in the use of force,” but rather “for development purposes.”

In a strategy called “hugs, not bullets,” López Obrador has sought to address poverty and other causes of violence and has ordered his military to avoid direct confrontation with the cartels. Sheinbaum continued elements of this strategy, but took a tougher stance in the fight against organized crime. It also renewed cooperation with the Americans, sending dozens of suspected cartel members to the United States for prosecution and giving the United States access to Mexican airspace. surveillance drones.

Under Sheinbaum, murder rates fell, although reports of forced disappearances increased. Crime remains a major problem here, with 75% of Mexicans saying they live in unsafe states, according to the 2025 census.

Some conservative critics of Sheinbaum supported the threat of American intervention. Opposition Sen. Lilly Telles welcomed the White House's designation of several Mexican cartels as “terrorist” groups, which Trump aides say opens the door to strikes, and told Fox News she supports the U.S. “sending troops and trying to help us Mexicans fight the cartels.” Sheinbaum called her a traitor.

Sheinbaum's supporters say the US has no right to interfere in Mexico's affairs and doubt the strikes will actually improve security.

The US-backed “kingpin strategy” used here for years, which called for killing or capturing drug lords, has been widely criticized for splintering the cartels into smaller, competing groups and leading to increased violence.

Michoacán, where Mexico first sent soldiers to root out the cartels in 2006, now faces a host of rival gangs and vigilante groups that finance their conflicts by levying heavy taxes on the lucrative lime and avocado industries.

One lime farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he could hear distant gunfire while he watered his trees. He and others are forced to pay criminals two pesos – about 10 cents – for every kilogram of fruit they produce.

The producer said he is in the good graces of the group that controls his region, but fears what will happen if the opposing group intervenes. He's concerned that Sheinbaum's strategy isn't strong enough.

“We can't wait 50 years to develop a prevention or intelligence strategy,” the manufacturer said. “We need to be more direct.” That includes, he said, limited US strikes.

Still, he said, he was conflicted. The cartel hitmen “were not monsters” and did not necessarily deserve to die. Most of them turned to crime due to poverty.

“That’s the dilemma,” he said. “We talk about zero tolerance. But are we really willing to pay in human lives?”

Linthicum reported from Mexico City and special correspondent Olson from Apatzingan. Cecilia Sanchez at The Times' Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.