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Guest Essay

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Ms. Sheridan is a journalist specializing in Latin America. She wrote from Mexico City.

President Trump can’t seem to stop threatening strikes on Mexico’s narcotics traffickers. He has repeatedly pushed to deploy U.S. troops inside Mexico to “take out the cartels” smuggling fentanyl and other drugs over the border. But he has a problem: President Claudia Sheinbaum says no.

“She’s a good woman,” Mr. Trump told Fox News last month, making clear he did not lump her in the same category as Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader who was captured by U.S. forces and is now in New York facing drug-trafficking charges. Ms. Sheinbaum’s hesitancy, he claimed, stems from fear rather than complicity. “She’s very frightened of the cartels,” he said. “She’s not running Mexico. The cartels are running Mexico.”

Mexico’s cartels are indeed highly dangerous, but Mr. Trump........

© The New York Times