Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has proved an obstacle to Trump's landborne advances. Photo: EYEPIX/AFP
Without providing further details, US President Donald Trump says land strikes against drug cartels are on the way, following maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
"We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels," Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity in an interview on Fox News on Thursday night.
"The cartels are running Mexico."
Trump's comments come after the surprise capture of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro last weekend, the culmination of months of mounting US military and economic pressure on the leftist leader.
As part of that campaign, United States had killed more than 100 people in strikes on alleged drug boats since September and Trump also said US forces conducted a land strike on a docking area for such vessels in Venezuela.
Strikes on cartels in Mexico would mark a significant US military escalation.
The left-wing interim government in Caracas has condemned US strikes on Venezuela as a threat to regional stability.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the Americas "do not belong" to any power, despite Trump invoking Washington's "dominance" of the hemisphere, after seizing Maduro.
On Sunday, Trump said he was pushing Sheinbaum to let him send US troops to tackle drug cartels in Mexico, an offer he said she had previously rebuffed.
- AFP