During last week’s Republican primary debate, the Florida governor was asked directly if he would order U.S. armed forces into Mexico to attack the cartels and their drug operations.
"Yes, and I will do it on day one," DeSantis replied.
Reacting to that exchange, national security analyst Bob Maginnis tells AFN if he was the U.S. president, he would ask Congress to declare war against the cartels.
“And tell the Mexican government either they take care of it or we will go into their sovereign territory,” he says. “Because they're killing arguably many thousands of Americans not only through the flood of fentanyl, but also the flood of criminals that are flowing through that border."
In his answer, DeSantis also mentioned fentanyl and the fatal toll it has taken on American citizens. He said he met a woman on the campaign trail who lost her son who had taken a Percocet laced with fentanyl.
“The President of the United States has got to use all available powers as commander in chief to protect our country and to protect the people,” DeSantis said. “So when they're coming across, yes, we're going to use lethal force. Yes, we reserve the right to operate. How many more tens of thousands are we going to let die?"
With their massive wealth and savage tactics, Mexico’s drug cartels famously control vast swaths of territory in their home country as well as the politicians and police officers located there who look the other way to stay alive.
In an August 8 story, Fox News reported three cartel members were seen on camera toting AR-15-style rifles and wearing body armor on the Texas side of the border.
It was not clear from the story if the cameras were set up by a land owner or by law enforcement authorities.
The murderous cartels are a regular topic for Brandon Darby, a Breitbart journalist whose beat is illegal immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. His recent stories about violence in Mexico have described:
*A cartel hit job carried out at a popular Mexican mall
*Six police officers killed by a cartel-planted bomb
*Two police officers killed and nine hurt in a cartel ambush
*Police found 13 dismembered bodies stuffed in freezers
*Cartel members hung three bodies from an overpass
Maginnis says the next president must regain control of the southern border with or without the help of the Mexican government.
“If the Mexican government doesn't want to cooperate,” he insists, “we have to take the necessary actions for own sovereign interest."
