President Sheinbaum Responds to Trump & Shield of the Americas Militarization

ByMexico Solidarity

This article originally appeared in the March 9, 2026 edition of RT en Español.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded on Monday to her US counterpart, Donald Trump, who over the weekend announced the creation of a continental military coalition against drug cartels and asserted that Mexico has rejected his help in combating organized crime.

“It’s good that President Trump publicly says that when he has proposed that the United States Army enter Mexico, we have said no, because it is the truth, and we proudly continue to say no ” the President stated at a press conference.

“We collaborate and cooperate in intelligence and other security-related activities, but operations in Mexico are carried out by the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Security, the National Guard, state police forces, and prosecutors’ offices,” she added.

Sheinbaum added that one thing Trump can help Mexico with is stopping arms trafficking, since the State Department itself has acknowledged that 75% of the arsenal used by the cartels is American. “If the United States stops the flow of weapons, they won’t have these kinds of high-powered weapons anymore,” she noted.

On Saturday, Trump led the Shield of the Americas Summit in Miami , which was attended by 12 far-right leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean who joined an unprecedented interventionist strategy that has the alleged objective of fighting organized crime.

There, Trump asserted that Mexico is the “epicenter” of drug cartel violence. “The cartels run Mexico . We can’t allow it. Too close to us. Too close to you,” he declared, warning that he could send missiles directly to other countries in the region to eliminate the groups that produce and traffic illegal drugs.

He also spoke about Sheinbaum in a contradictory way, on the one hand praising her, but on the other he asserted that she does not want the U.S. to help Mexico fight drug traffickers.

“I like the president very much . She’s a very good person. She has a beautiful voice. A beautiful woman, with a beautiful voice,” he said. He then claimed that he had already asked her to allow him to “eradicate the cartels,” to which the president supposedly replied, “No, no, no, please, Mr. President.” In his account, Trump even tried to imitate Sheinbaum’s voice.