Schools for Chiapas || At the beginning of Donald Trump’s administration, Mexico was in Washington’s sights for military action, but months later, the war strategy shifted to Venezuela, under the same justification of drug trafficking but with the official admission that it is really about oil. Now, the aim is to pressure Mexico to “align” itself with the United States in Latin America.
The powerful deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, initially drew up plans at the beginning of the Trump administration for US military action on Mexican territory, but the success of US efforts to curb border crossings and Mexico’s cooperation convinced him to seek a war further south, in Venezuela, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
“President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser and other senior officials were looking for a conflict,” the newspaper reported. “In the early months of this administration, Miller, the architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant and border policies, and his team discussed launching a new war on drugs with attacks on cartels and alleged traffickers in Mexico.”
Miller, who is the architect of the cruel campaign, which many accuse of being illegal, to terrorize immigrant communities in this country, has allied himself with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka to promote military action against Venezuela, according to government sources consulted by La Jornada.
Miller has become the “driving force” behind the campaign against Venezuela, “pushing for results and new military options that could turn into operations in the future,” reports the Post. The powerful 40-year-old adviser has also become a spokesperson for this position on television news programs and social media.
After President Trump announced his naval blockade against Venezuela this week, no longer as part of a war on drugs—as had been the justification until now—but to force the South American country to “comply with sanctions,” the Post notes that the administration is now considering military options.
After President Trump announced his naval blockade against Venezuela this week, no longer as part of a war on drugs—as had been the justification until now—but to force the South American country to “return” oil “stolen” from the United States, Miller argued his boss’s message in a tweet. “American sweat, ingenuity, and labor created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the greatest theft of wealth and property ever recorded. These looted assets were then used to finance terrorism and flood our streets with murderers, mercenaries, and drugs.”
In interviews and other reports about Miller over the past decade (he was also an advisor to the president during his first term), he has acknowledged that part of his role is to aggressively frame issues for the public with the aim of generating policy options that are then adopted by the president. Miller was the first to announce to the media covering the White House that “the entire border on the Mexican side” is controlled by drug cartels. Trump used that very rhetoric last week.
But Miller is not the only critic of Mexico who influences Trump. This week, Cuban-American Representative María Salazar of Florida convened a legislative hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on “Mexico’s relationship with the region,” to which State Department officials were invited.
“Mexico’s official position has always been one of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries in the Western Hemisphere, but that is only true in theory, not in practice,” Salazar charged as he opened the hearing on Wednesday. “The perfect example is Cuba. In the last four months, Mexico has sent Castro’s tyranny 55 free oil tankers worth $3 billion… It only helps the tyranny continue to subjugate the Cuban people.”
She added that Mexico’s agreement to invite Cuban doctors is a violation of the USMCA — one of the arguments already being used in negotiations to renew the trade agreement. He attacked President Claudia Sheinbaum for refusing to comment when asked her opinion on Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado. “The Western Hemisphere needs leaders, not spectators.”
Very few legislators attended the hearing, and the State Department—despite the fact that its head is also a Cuban-American from Florida—decided not to send its highest-ranking officials from its Western Hemisphere and Narcotics sections to the session. They praised Mexico’s cooperation, but under Salazar’s questioning, they offered some moderate criticism.
“Unfortunately, in adhering to its constitutionally non-interventionist foreign policy, the current administration has often acted in ways that are contrary to what we believe are our shared values and the objectives of the United States,” said Katherine Dueholm, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, in response to Salazar. She highlighted in particular Mexico’s support for Cuba and added, “We will continue to urge Mexico to reconsider these positions.”
When asked by Salazar what else Mexico should be doing, Chris Landberg of the Bureau of International Narcotics Affairs responded that “cooperation is at a level we haven’t seen in a long time.” But pressed to say more, he said that the United States welcomes an expanded Mexican budget for anti-narcotics work and hopes that even more funds can be dedicated to this area, that Americans would also like to see more Mexican forces patrolling the border with the United States, as well as greater efforts by Mexico with China to address the precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of fentanyl.
This hearing itself will not have a direct impact on White House decision-making, but the lobbying by Salazar and other Republican lawmakers who support Miller’s positions implies greater pressure on Mexico not only on bilateral issues but also on alignment with Washington on Cuba and Venezuela in the Americas.
Original text by Jim Cason and David Brooks published in La Jornada on December 18th, 2025.
Photo found at Southern Poverty Law Center.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
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