Trump says US ‘going to start now hitting land’ against drug cartels

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that land strikes against drug cartels were on the way following maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, without providing further details.

“We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity in an interview on Fox News that aired Thursday night.

Trump’s comments come after the surprise capture of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro last weekend, the culmination of months of mounting US military and economic pressure on the leftist leader.

As part of that campaign, United States has killed more than 100 people in strikes on alleged drug boats since September, and Trump has also said that the US forces conducted a land strike on a docking area for such vessels in Venezuela.

But strikes on cartels in Mexico would mark a significant US military escalation.

The left-wing interim government in Caracas has condemned US strikes on Venezuela as a threat to regional stability.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that the Americas “do not belong” to any power, after Trump invoked Washington’s “dominance” of the hemisphere after seizing Maduro.

Trump said on Sunday he was pushing Sheinbaum to let him send US troops to tackle drug cartels in Mexico, an offer he said she had previously rebuffed.