Trump, secret order for the Pentagon. The US Army, authorized to intervene against drug cartels abroad
Donald Trum., Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP / Profimedia Images
US President Donald Trump has secretly signed a Directive to Pentagon to start using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration consider terrorist organizations, people have said familiar with The New York Times.
The decision to involve the American army in battle is the most aggressive step so far in the increasingly intense campaign of the Trump administration.
The measure signals the availability of current US president to use military forces to end what was first considered to be responsibility for law enforcement authorities to reduce the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
The order offers an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and foreign territory against cartels.
US military officials have begun to develop options on how the army could attack groups, people said with discussions, speaking under the condition of anonymity about sensitive internal deliberations.
Legal issues
To order the army to intervene to combat illicit trade also raises legal issues-including whether or not a “crime” were considered if the US military kill civilians who do not represent an imminent threat, be they and suspected of crimes, outside an armed conflict authorized by the US Congress.
It is not clear what the lawyers of the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department said about the new directive or if the legal counseling office of the Justice Department has issued an authorized opinion to evaluate the legal issues.
President Trump has already held troops from the National Guard and troops in active service, at the southwest border, to intervene against the flow of immigrants and drugs.
When he returned to the White House in January, Donald Trump signed an order for the State Department to begin to classify drug cards as foreign terrorist organizations.
In February, the State Department declared foreign terrorist organizations Train de Aragua, Mara Salvatruha (known as MS-13) and other groups, saying that they are “a threat to national security beyond the one represented by the traditional organized crime”.
Reward placed on behalf of the president of Venezuela, doubled
Two weeks ago, the Trump administration added Cartel de Los Soles, or the Sun Cartel, on a list of specially designated global terrorist groups, saying that it is led by the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and other high -ranking officials from the Caracas Administration.
On Thursday, the State and Justice Department announced that the US government doubles, at $ 50 million, the reward for information that will lead to the arrest of President Maduro, charged to the US for drug trafficking. The Trump administration again described as a cartel leader again, and prosecutor General Pam Bondi said that “he will not escape justice and will be held responsible for his lower crimes.”
