Target Mexico? Not so fast

Members of the Mexican Army patrolling in Sinaloa, Mexico. US strikes on boats that Trump says are used by drug smugglers have alarmed Mexico, America’s biggest trading partner. — Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times

AS US President Donald Trump blows up one boat after another off Venezuela’s coast and declares an “armed conflict” against drug cartels, a new and unsettling question has surfaced closer to home: could Mexico be next?

“I would be honoured to go in and do it,” Trump said in May, when asked about using US forces to hunt cartel members. “The cartels are trying to destroy our country. They’re evil.”