President Trump just made a surprise announcement on his social media, announcing that all regulations are now in place to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations….but that he’s giving it a temporary hold to work with Mexican President Obrador.
Here was the announcement:
All necessary work has been completed to declare Mexican Cartels terrorist organizations. Statutorily we are ready to do so. However, at the request of a man who I like and respect, and has worked so well with us, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, we will temporarily hold off this designation and step up our joint efforts to deal decisively with these vicious and ever-growing organizations!
Here's more from Bloomberg:
President Donald Trump said he’s holding off -- at least for now -- on a proposal to classify Mexican narcotics cartels as terrorist organizations, adding that he’s doing so as a favor to Mexico’s president.
“All necessary work has been completed to declare Mexican Cartels terrorist organizations,” Trump tweeted on Friday night. “Statutorily we are ready to do so.”
“However, at the request of a man who I like and respect, and has worked so well with us, President Andres Manuel @LopezObrador we will temporarily hold off this designation and step up our joint efforts to deal decisively with these vicious and ever-growing organizations!”
Trump’s Twitter post appeared as talks with Mexico’s government over a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement had reached a crucial stage.
Lopez Obrador’s top trade negotiator, Jesus Seade, remained in Washington on Friday in an attempt to resolve final details with the Trump administration.
The Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, praised Trump’s move.
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”On behalf of the Government of Mexico,” he wrote on Twitter, “I appreciate President Donald Trump’s decision to postpone the designation of organizations as terrorists at the request of President López Obrador, who also respects and appreciates him. Cooperation won, and there will be good results.”
The proposal to designate the drug crews as terrorist groups emerged amid the outrage over the killing early last month of nine members of a Mormon family with dual American-Mexican citizenship in an attack by cartel gunmen in northern Mexico.
Key administration officials are in favor of the policy, according to people familiar with the matter.
Under that plan, the State Department would be allowed to designate cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, putting them in the same category as Islamic State and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Trump said in a tweet after the attack that it was time “for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels.
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