Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth expressed his gratitude for the “unprecedented collaboration” with Mexico and urged Mexican authorities to intensify their efforts as much as possible during a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar questioned Hegseth:
“If you could tell us what you are doing, Mexico is very important to us. Congressman Michael McCall and I were in Mexico and pushed for the presence of special operations forces, the SEALs, to conduct training exercises. For the first time, we have military forces in Mexico, which is quite unique.”
Cuellar also asked:
“The cartels are learning from Ukraine. We are receiving reports that the cartels are studying fiber optic drone systems. What measures are you taking in this regard?”
To which the Pentagon chief responded:
“Thank you, Congressman. I greatly appreciate your efforts in this area over the years. I believe you see in the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy that the Western Hemisphere and National Security are the number one priority.”
“In Mexico, we have had unprecedented cooperation, and we are grateful for it. We encourage the Mexican Army and Navy to continue collaborating and, to the extent possible, to intensify their efforts. The United States government hopes that the Mexican government will step up so that we don’t have to,” he added.
The official defended the closure of the southwest border, stating, “It is in defense of the American people. And if you talk to the troops who are there doing that, you’ll see that they are proud of it… We also have several defense areas down there that are under control… we can conduct rapid testing.”
Representative Cuellar concluded with the following statement: “I want to ask you to continue working with Mexico. The more we can pressure them, the better. They are allies, but there is a historical sensitivity—we know why—but the more we can pressure them to collaborate with us, the better.”
Source: jornada
