President Sheinbaum rejects US strikes on Mexico territory in latest call with Trump

MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum once again ruled out US strikes on Mexican territory in a phone call with US President Donald Trump, a week after

his military seized Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

Shortly after elite US forces captured Maduro, Mr Trump again hinted at the possibility of unilateral action to target the Mexican cartels that traffic drugs across the two nations’ shared border, especially the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

“We continue to collaborate and coordinate without the need for intervention from the United States,” Ms Sheinbaum told reporters on Jan 12. 

“We operate in Mexico,” she said. “No one else does.”

Speaking at her regular morning press conference, which was delayed due to the

phone call with Mr Trump,

Mexico’s President noted that the brief chat was her idea.

The latest call between the two leaders comes amid escalating tensions across the region following the US move to forcibly extract Maduro and his wife from Caracas and fly them to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Ms Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly tried to ratchet down tensions with Mr Trump, acknowledged that the call touched on the US strike on Maduro.

“He asked me what my opinion was on what they had done in Venezuela, and I told him clearly that our Constitution was very clear, that we don’t agree with interventions,” Ms Sheinbaum said.

Since she took office in late 2024, the leftist Sheinbaum has also refrained from criticising the self-styled socialist Maduro, part of a political balancing act that dates back to her similarly cautious predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. 

Ms Sheinbaum explained that the call with Mr Trump focused mainly on security. She said she highlighted progress made by the Mexican authorities, including a 50 per cent one-year drop in fentanyl trafficking into the US. She added that senior officials from both the US and Mexico will meet again to discuss bilateral security issues on Jan 22 and 23. 

Ms Sheinbaum stressed that despite any policy differences she may have with Mr Trump, she will continue to pursue dialogue with him, even touting the cool-headed approach that has won her plaudits since the US leader returned to the White House in 2025. 

“It has helped us so far,” she said. “We must continue in this vein, seeking dialogue and understanding, and where we disagree, we must also talk about it so that there are no misunderstandings and solutions can be found.” 

Mr Trump again warned Mexico, as well as Colombia, that he will not tolerate the flow of drugs into the US, the day after Maduro’s capture.

“Mexico has to get their act together, because they are pouring through Mexico. And we are going to have to do something,” Mr Trump said on Jan 4, but without going into detail. At the time, he said he had repeatedly offered to Ms Sheinbaum that the US military could “clean up” Mexico’s cartel problem. 

Ms Sheinbaum has consistently argued that such aid is unnecessary. Instead, she has called for greater coordination with the US, downplaying the possibility that Mr Trump might target cartels inside Mexican territory without prior authorisation from her government.

Last week, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro spoke on the phone with Mr Trump after months of trading insults. The call appeared to cool tensions between them. Mr Petro, a leftist former rebel whose term as president ends in August, previously said he was prepared to take up arms for his country if the US intervened.

Ms Sheinbaum said she and Mr Trump also discussed trade, including the tariffs he has imposed on Mexican goods, as well as 2026’s scheduled review of the USMCA trade accord. But she did not provide further details.

Shipments of Mexican oil to Cuba were not discussed, she added. BLOOMBERG