Republicans push for NARCOS bill against Mexican cartels despite criticism from López Obrador

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham introduced a bill on Wednesday to designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

"Despite what the president of Mexico [Andrés Manuel López Obrador] says, they control large parts of Mexico" and "make billions of dollars sending fentanyl and drugs to the United States," the senator said, "designating them as foreign terrorist organizations It will change the rules of the game."

The law, baptized NARCOS, targets the cartels of Sinaloa, Jalisco Nueva Generación, the Gulf, the Northeast, Los Zetas, Juárez, Tijuana, the Beltrán-Leyva and the Michoacán Family.

It would allow federal authorities to use extraterritorial jurisdiction to prosecute and try foreigners for ties to cartels and other transnational criminal groups.

Graham (right) introduces the NARCOS bill on March 29 in Washington DCKevin Dietsch/Getty Images

His momentum in the Senate (where the Democrats maintain a slight majority) could aggravate the diplomatic crisis between the Republicans (who do control the House of Representatives) and López Obrador.

[Mexico and the US reach an agreement on fentanyl]

"They are killing Americans on both sides of the border. And Americans are becoming addicted," lamented Republican Sen. John Kennedy, "we have to dismantle and discourage the Mexican cartels in every way possible."

"Designating these killers as foreign terrorist organizations would give US authorities more tools to put the cartels behind bars," he concluded.

Reportedly Trump Plans Attacks in Mexico

This Thursday, a report by Rolling Stone magazine was also released stating that former President Donald Trump plans military actions against the cartels in Mexico if he returns to the White House.

Advisors to the former president have informed him of options that include unilateral military attacks and deployment of troops in Mexican territory, according to various sources cited by the magazine.

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The program "

, or whatever you want to call it, is something for which Trump has said he wants 'battle plans,'" a source quoted by the magazine revealed, "he has complained about lost opportunities in his first term, and there are a lot of people around him who want fewer missed opportunities in a second term" should he win the 2024 presidential election.

The possibility of the United States sending its Army to Mexican territory for operations against the cartels has been rejected by López Obrador, who called the Republicans "wimps and interventionists" for these plans, according to the newspaper El País.

The kidnapping of four Americans and the murder of two of them in Matamoros, in the border state of Tamaulipas, at the beginning of March renewed pressure from Republicans.

The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, met in Washington DC with the 52 consuls and the ambassador to the United States to urge them to criticize the Republicans for these measures: "We are not going to allow them to want to run over Mexico," he said, "What these gentlemen are saying is almost invading Mexico."