May 28 (Reuters) – Guatemala has agreed to carry out joint strikes with the United States military inside its territory to target drug trafficking groups, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the talks.
The U.S. Defense Department intends to also press Honduras to accept joint military action, the report said, adding the Trump administration is targeting the two countries to pressure Mexico into accepting joint counter-drug operations.
The White House, U.S. State Department, the Pentagon and the embassies of Guatemala and Honduras in the U.S. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the Guatemalan government could not immediately be reached.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has long maintained that she welcomes intelligence-sharing and security cooperation but will not accept U.S. agents or forces participating in operations on Mexican territory.
In contrast, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for greater use of U.S. military force to combat Mexican cartels, and has threatened that the U.S. could go it alone if Washington feels Mexico isn’t doing enough.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and David Holmes)
