Politicians and civilians are dying by the tens of thousands as cartel violence in Mexico spirals out of control. Carlos Manzo Rodríguez, the mayor of Uruapan in Michoacán State, was shot seven times and killed on November 2, 2025, during a Day of the Dead celebration in the city’s central plaza at the Festival of Lights.
Manzo is the sixth mayor assassinated in Mexico this year. During the 2024 election cycle, eighteen mayoral candidates or aspiring candidates were murdered, and from October 2024 through early 2025, eight sitting mayors were also killed across the country.
A mayor was beheaded. Alejandro Arcos Catalán, mayor of Chilpancingo in Guerrero, was murdered in October 2024. His head was found atop a white van, with the rest of his body inside the vehicle. Over 268 political candidates, politicians, associates, or family members were killed from December 2023 to June 2024.
Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2023, at least 2,638 police officers were slain. In Guanajuato State, more police were shot to death in 2023, about sixty, than in the entire United States. In the city of Celaya, population 500,000, at least thirty-four police officers have been killed in the last three years. Mexico’s national statistics institute counts 486,000 total homicides between 2007 and 2024.
Earlier this year, in February 2025, the State Department designated six Mexican drug cartels, along with MS-13 and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations. The move gave U.S. intelligence and military agencies sweeping legal authority to conduct espionage and covert operations targeting the criminal networks.
In May 2025, President Trump confirmed his proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico to combat drug trafficking, targeting cartels and other criminal groups operating from Latin America. Detailed planning for these missions is underway, and early stages of training, including possible ground operations inside Mexico, have already begun. It remains unclear when U.S. military operations might take place or whether Mexican officials will be informed in advance.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that “all options will be on the table” when it comes to dealing with the cartels. Under the proposed plan, U.S. forces in Mexico would primarily use drone strikes to hit drug labs and cartel members and leaders. Some of the drones special forces would operate require personnel on the ground to use them effectively and safely.
The mission would mark a break with past administrations, which quietly deployed CIA, military, and law enforcement teams to Mexico to support local police and army units fighting cartels but did not take direct lethal action against them.
Secretary Hegseth wrote on X on October 30, 2025, “The Western Hemisphere is no longer a safe haven for narco-terrorists bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans. The Department of War will continue to hunt them down and eliminate them wherever they operate.”
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo rejected President Trump’s proposal to send U.S. troops into Mexico, declaring, “I told him, ‘No, President Trump, our territory is inviolable, our sovereignty is inviolable, our sovereignty is not for sale. Sovereignty is loved and defended.’” She said Mexico and the United States “can work together, but you in your territory and us in ours,” adding firmly, “There will be no invasion of Mexico.”
Regarding the Trump administration’s designation of cartels as terrorist organizations, Sheinbaum warned, “This designation should not be used by the United States as an opportunity to invade our sovereignty.”
At her October 23, 2025, press conference, Sheinbaum also rejected U.S. air strikes, stating, “Obviously, we do not agree. There are international laws on how to operate when dealing with the alleged illegal transport of drugs or guns on international waters, and we have expressed this to the government of the United States and publicly.”
She concluded, “The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military. We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”
Most likely, Sheinbaum and Mexico will be receiving U.S. troops whether she acknowledges the need or not.
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