Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has called on the population to keep a 'cool head' in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's statements that 'Mexico is the epicenter of cartel violence.' This response came during a tour in the State of Mexico dedicated to inaugurating an educational facility. Without providing further details on the Republican leader's comments, who reiterated on Saturday that 'cartels are running Mexico,' Sheinbaum calmly stated that the issue would be reviewed the following Monday, March 9, during her morning press conference. The questioning of the country's leader arose after Trump announced the creation of a military coalition with right-wing Latin American presidents to defeat the cartels, an alliance that Mexico is not part of, amid tensions over a potential U.S. attack on drug trafficking in Mexican territory. At the 'Shield of the Americas' summit, the U.S. president called Sheinbaum 'a very good person' with a 'beautiful voice,' but insisted that 'Mexican cartels are driving and orchestrating the bloodshed and chaos in the hemisphere.' He also recalled that in his calls with Sheinbaum, he has insisted that the U.S. must bomb or send troops to combat Mexican cartels. The meeting follows the capture and death in February of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, the most-wanted Mexican drug trafficker, with the help of U.S. intelligence. In Trump's 'Shield of the Americas' initiative, nearly 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean pledged to cooperate with the U.S.
