On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) stated that trade with Mexico has “prevented us from having a very serious conversation on cartel activity in Mexico” and warned that without real action to stop the violence, America will suffer economically.
Gonzalez said, “I think we need to work with law enforcement and the military covertly in Mexico through intelligence and people on the ground and make surgical operations to take them out, take them out financially and physically, bring them to justice when we can. But a clear message needs to be sent that the violence that we’ve tolerated for the last 20 years in Mexico cannot continue. It’s now impacted American society. We lost 70,000 people to fentanyl alone this year. Mexico has lost more lives in the last 20 years to cartel violence than we’ve lost in every war from Korea [and] Vietnam, to our wars in the Middle East, just to give you a perspective of what’s happening across our border. Now, trade is great and we love it, and I think that’s what’s prevented us from having a very serious conversation on cartel activity in Mexico. But, at the end of the day, if we don’t make real measures that will stop this violence across our border, it’s going to have an economic impact in our country.”
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