Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas: There is a Risk of US Intervention in Mexico

ByGloria Leticia Díaz

This article by Gloria Leticia Díaz originally appeared in the March 10, 2026 edition of Proceso.

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, three-time presidential candidate and founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), warned that there is a “risk” of a US intervention in Mexico, due to recent statements against Mexico by US President Donald Trump.

Cárdenas Solórzano issued the warning during his participation in an interview conducted by historian, professor and analyst Sergio Aguayo Quesada, coordinator of the Seminar on Violence and Peace at the College of Mexico (COLMEX), who with this participation began a new cycle called Conversations, intended to talk with figures from the public life of Mexico.

Cárdenas Solórzano, a researcher at COLMEX, was asked for his opinion on the dangers facing Mexico in light of President Donald Trump’s statements that Mexico is the “epicenter” of continental violence and that it is run by cartels, as he reiterated in his weekend meeting in Miami with 12 leaders from the continent.

“At this Miami meeting, what the media has clearly reflected is a very clear anti-Mexican stance, very disrespectful, even on the part of President Trump in his remarks. And well, I think the risk exists,” said the founder of the PRD.

He added that “this is not about being alarmist, the risk exists,” but that he is unclear about “how that intervention could happen, I have no idea what the country’s reaction might be, official, unofficial, from different sectors.”

The three-time presidential candidate from a faction of the Mexican left maintained that, despite not having a public life and not belonging to any party, “in the face of any undue interference I would go out into the street and express myself in every way I could, that much I have no doubt about.”

From his point of view, a US intervention in Mexico would generate reactions against the US government, not only from Mexicans but also from their northern neighbors.

“Actually, we would have to sit down very calmly and see what might happen and what the reactions might be in the event of an intervention that is not consented to, I would say, not consented to by the government, not foreseen by military forces, specifically by the United States, as happened in Venezuela, as is currently happening in Iran.”

“I don’t know exactly how it could happen, and it would be very unfortunate if that were to happen, both for us and for the United States. I think there could be many reactions both here and there in the event of an intervention by the U.S. government in Mexico.”

Cárdenas Solórzano explained that it would be expected that Mexicans living in the northern country would react, as well as “the United States in the face of a totally undue, totally illegal aggression by its own government in the neighboring country, with which we share many things along a 3,000-kilometer border.”

Cárdenas Solórzano Endorses Sheinbaum’s Actions Against Drug Trafficking

He acknowledged that “the issue most felt by the people” in recent times has to do with the security crisis, and without mentioning the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose security policy was based on the slogan “hugs and not bullets”, Cárdenas Solórzano endorsed the actions taken by the government of Claudia Sheinbaum.

“I want to express that this problem is being addressed better today than in previous years. I think this is evident and has nothing to do with being on one side or the other. I think we are acting in a better way, but I think we would have to do something—and it is not easy at all—(…) we would have to think of a plan that could, I would say, sweep the country and rescue the country so that there would be a permanent presence of society through various actions of society and the State.”

Considering that the country’s recovery could happen municipality by municipality, for example, Cárdenas Solórzano reiterated that the country’s salvation must be achieved “jointly by society and the State to clean up the country, to win the country fairly and sweep away all that is crime, but this requires planning, it requires resources, it requires international agreements, it requires fundamental political will and, as I say, improving education.”

Electoral Reform: Resources Allocated to Political Parties are Excessive

Regarding President Claudia Sheinbaum’s proposed political reform, the former presidential candidate agreed that the amount of public funds given to political parties is excessive, although he admitted that “it is important that there be public funding for the parties and that these are not resources whose origin we do not know, which ultimately end up being present in political campaigns.”

He added that “it is necessary, and today I would ask more than ever, to establish mechanisms to prevent illicit money from entering elections. I believe this is very, very important; we have to find ways to prevent dirty money from reaching elections, from municipal elections to the Presidency of the Republic.”

After maintaining that there was no illegal money in the financing of his three presidential campaigns, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas stressed the importance of taking measures to correct illegal actions, and recalled that after the 2006 presidential election, which recognized Felipe Calderón’s victory over Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Federal Electoral Tribunal did not dare to annul the election despite the irregularities.

“I believe that we still have a lot to do if we want to give real value to democracy, which begins precisely with equality.”

“In the ruling of the Electoral Tribunal to qualify the election, it must be that of 2006, it was argued, among other things, that there had been interference by the President of the Republic, in this case Vicente Fox, in the election, but the Tribunal did not dare, this is my very personal point of view, to rule that it was necessary to annul the election and call for a new election.

“I think this was very serious because there are two things we have to avoid in elections: the presence of dirty money and the interference of officials at any level to try to sway an election in favor of X or Z interests or people,” he pointed out.

By highlighting that Mexico is one of the countries “with one of the greatest material inequalities in living conditions of sectors of the population that are still far from minimum conditions”, the most important challenge for democratic life is to balance the social situation.

“I believe that we still have a lot to do if we want to give real value to democracy, which begins precisely with equality,” Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas pointed out.