MEXICO CITY: Mexico, which is under growing pressure from Washington to crack down on drug trafficking, has given approval for US troops to enter the country for joint exercises.
Since his return to the White House in 2025, President Donald Trump has been leaning on Mexico to halt drug trafficking and irregular migration across their shared border.
He has threatened to hike tariffs on Mexican exports as a coercive measure while also offering US military support.
His leftist Mexican counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum has ruled out any military intervention by Washington, including the deployment of US troops on Mexican soil.
But on Monday night, the Senate gave the green light for 139 armed US military personnel to take part in a joint training exercise in the border state of Chihuahua.
Such exercises predate the administrations of Sheinbaum and Trump but ties between the two have been strained since April, after two CIA agents were killed in Chihuahua while taking part in a drug raid with local government forces.
Sheinbaum’s government said it had not been aware of the US involvement in the operation.
