Drug cartel at war with US, that few want to fight back against

 The Hill:

A fringe idea to directly take on the Mexican cartels with the U.S. military is gaining some traction in the Republican party — even as critics warn that any unilateral action would endanger relations with Mexico and fail to alleviate the flow of drugs across the border.

Several leading Republican presidential candidates, including former President Trump, have backed unilateral military action in Mexico. At the same time, conservative lawmakers have introduced legislation to either authorize U.S. military action against the cartels or designate them as terrorist groups, a label that could pave the way for military force.

“I will impose a full naval embargo on the drug cartels and deploy military assets to inflict maximum damage on cartel operations,” Trump said in a 4-minute video this month filmed on the border.

Yet direct military action still has scant support among centrist Republicans in Congress, who argue there are more effective ways to address the cartels and stop the illegal trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs that are killing Americans.
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What Trump proposed was not sending troops into Mexico to fight the cartel, but using missiles to destroy their drug production facilities.  It would not be an invasion.  It is not clear why the Mexican officials would want to protect the drug terrorists.  Trump would also stop the transport of the drugs into the US. 

See, also:

Hundreds flee drug cartel turf battles in rural western Mexico

Gun battles between drug cartels forced about 700 people to flee their rural villages in the western Mexico state of Michoacan, activists and a local priest said Friday.

Rev. Jorge Armando Vázquez said dozens of people are sleeping in the nave of a parish church in the hamlet of El Rosario, on the outskirts of the city of Apatzingan. Hundreds of others are sheltering with local families, after hours-long gun battles chased them from their homes Tuesday.
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