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President Donald Trump intensified pressure on Mexico at the United Nations this week, calling the country an “epicenter” of cartel violence and saying its government must reclaim territory controlled by criminal groups.
Speaking to the UN General Assembly Tuesday, Trump compared drug cartels to ISIS and said the U.S. was prepared to use its “unmatched military might” to defend its interests in the Western Hemisphere. “It’s unacceptable for the United States to share a 2,000-mile border with a territory controlled by enemy cartels,” Trump told world leaders. “Mexico must reclaim control of its soil from the enemies of humanity.”
His remarks came as he rallied members of the Shield of the Americas, a U.S.-led anti-cartel coalition launched in March that Mexico has not joined. Trump urged its members to take coordinated action against 24 criminal organizations across the region, including eight Mexican group such as the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and Los Viagras. Coalition members said they intend to pursue measures including asset freezes, visa restrictions and penalties for providing material support to the groups.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back Wednesday. She said Mexico could similarly complain about living next to a country with high levels of illicit drug consumption and weapons production but emphasized that Trump had also praised bilateral ties and that both governments continue working together on security.
The exchange exposed a persistent divide: Washington and Mexico City increasingly agree that organized crime is a central bilateral concern but disagree on responsibilities. “They’re having this understanding of security as a main problem but also having differences in terms of who’s responsible for what and why,” said Rodrigo Peña, a political scientist specializing in criminal governance and peacebuilding at the Tecnológico de Monterrey University.
Peña adds the two governments are approaching security from different political realities. The Trump administration tends to frame cartels and drug trafficking as threats entering the United States from abroad, while Mexico argues that the problem cannot be addressed without U.S. action on drug consumption, firearms and illicit financial flows.
That difference helps explain one of Sheinbaum’s most consistent political messages.
A TPR review of official presidential statements found more than two dozen public appearances since January 2025 in which Sheinbaum invoked sovereignty, non-subordination or similar language when discussing relations with the United States. So far in 2026, she has stressed in eight different public speeches that Mexico won’t accept any type of foreign intervention.
Yet the language has not translated into less cooperation.
David Mora, a senior Mexico analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Washington’s recurring assertion that Mexico is “not doing enough” has barely changed since Trump returned to office, even as Mexico stepped up intelligence-sharing and mounted major counternarcotics operations.
Mora sees the public pressure as a political strategy on both sides: Trump can show he is pushing Mexico for tougher action, while Sheinbaum can cooperate closely with Washington while demonstrating domestically that Mexico remains autonomous.
“Her apparent disagreements with Trump’s message of ‘not doing enough’ don’t really translate into actions that impede or somehow slow down bilateral cooperation,” Mora said.
Current military cooperation underscores the point. Mexico’s Senate this month authorized 139 armed members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to enter Chihuahua for joint training requested by Sheinbaum’s government — under principles lawmakers described as sovereignty, shared responsibility and cooperation “without subordination.”
That operational cooperation has Texas roots. The binational anti-drone framework now expanding to Tijuana-San Diego was first piloted in March along the Texas border, between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. And in late August, U.S. forces used a high-energy laser system to shoot down three drones in Texas's Rio Grande Valley — the first confirmed use of a directed-energy weapon against cartel-linked aircraft anywhere. Northern Command says its border task force has neutralized more than 300 drones so far this year, over 100 of them in August alone.
A more difficult test is Washington’s expanding focus on Mexican politicians accused of aiding criminal groups.
In April, U.S. prosecutors charged Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current and former officials with drug-trafficking and weapons offenses, alleging they worked with Sinaloa Cartel leaders in exchange for bribes and political support. Rocha denies the accusations, which remain allegations.
Mora said the indictment demonstrated that alleged political protection of organized crime has become a major U.S. priority alongside drug production and trafficking. He cautioned that the problem is not unique to Sinaloa, Rocha or Sheinbaum’s Morena party, saying criminal groups have penetrated institutions controlled by different political parties and at multiple levels of government.
Mexico has taken some steps against people named in the U.S. case, including freezing accounts linked to former officials, though Sheinbaum said those measures were preventive rather than the result of a Mexican criminal investigation.
Trade adds another constraint. Mexico sends roughly 80% of its exports to the United States and remains locked in negotiations with Washington over tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, as well as the future of USMCA. That dependence gives Sheinbaum strong incentive to keep confrontation with Trump within limits, even as she publicly defends Mexican sovereignty.
The harder question may come if Washington pushes its anti-cartel campaign further into Mexican politics — forcing Sheinbaum to decide how far “cooperation without subordination” extends when the targets are not cartel leaders, but Mexican officials.
