President Trump has tasked our military with taking out the drug cartels south of the border. He has designated cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations." This is no simple mission, it may not even be possible.
As cartels are well armed, this will be a violent intervention on foreign soil that includes Mexico, Venezuela, and possibly elsewhere south of the border. It will be interesting to see how these countries, some or all of which are corrupt, react to the announcement.
Our collaboration with the locals will likely be fruitless as their governments are riddled with government employees on the take who would leak any joint plans to the cartel.
Latin American countries normally are touchy about their "sovereignty." A long history of US troop interventions in Mexico, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, and elsewhere gives them pause.
It is possible Trump will seek permission to hunt cartels. If a country refuses, cut off US visas for citizens of that country and tariff their exports to us at 100%. But, infuriating the locals is a good way to get them to cozy up to the Chinese who already cooperate with the cartels, something not in our interest.
Any agreements permitting our troops will need to include the special wording which says any collateral damage will be settled by arbitration. Otherwise you can't ask our troops to commit what are criminal acts if done by non-LEOs in a foreign nation with which we are not at war.
