Mexico Threatens US With Legal Action If Cartels Declared Terror Group

Mexico's president on Friday warned US gunmakers they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington designates Mexican cartels as terrorist groups.

"If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we'll have to expand our US lawsuit," Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference.

A new charge could include alleged "complicity" of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.

Sheinbaum said the US Justice Department itself has recognized that "74 percent of the weapons" used by criminal groups in Mexico come from north of the border.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the US State Department plans to classify criminal groups from Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela as "terrorist organizations."

Mexico has already filed a lawsuit in the United States against US arms manufacturers and vendors, claiming $10 billion in damages for their alleged role in criminal violence in the country.

Earlier this month, Sheinbaum angrily rejected an accusation by the United States that her government has an alliance with drug cartels.

"We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations," the president wrote on social platform X at the time.

"If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the US gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups," she added.

Tensions between the closely connected neighbors soared after the White House said Trump would slap tariffs of 25 percent on both Mexican and Canadian goods because of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

The threatened tariffs have since been halted for 30 days.

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