U.S. President Donald Trump had suggested in his Jan. 9 evening interview with Fox News that the time had come for U.S. military strikes inside Mexico, against the drug cartels, he claimed. Late Sunday night, Jan. 11, the State Department then sent out the official readout on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s conversation with Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente that day. The readout carried a menacing tone. Rubio, it reported, discussed with de la Fuente, “the need for stronger cooperation to dismantle Mexico’s violent narcoterrorists networks and stop the trafficking of fentanyl and weapons. Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to stopping narcoterrorism and stressed the need for tangible results to protect our homeland and hemisphere.”
Then less than a day later, President Claudia Sheinbaum reported that she had held a 15-minute phone call in the morning of Jan. 12 with President Donald Trump, accompanied by her Foreign Minister and two other officials. She described it as a “good conversation,” in which she had again reminded President Trump both of what Mexico achieved in fighting the drug scourge in 2025, and that these successes stemmed from collaboration from within a framework of sovereignty.
Through “joint collaboration … the flow of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States has been reduced by 50%.” That is measured, she explained, by the statistics provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which show that the CBP seized 50% less fentanyl this year, and that deaths from fentanyl in the United States have been reduced by about 43%.
She said she had briefed him on the number of laboratories that have been seized; the number of people arrested in connection with organized crime; how homicides have decreased by 40%” —work that has been done “jointly, based on understanding, with respect for our sovereignties.”
