Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador earlier asked his American counterpart to halt a decision to add drug criminals to the US list of terror organizations. Trump said Friday that he would suspend the enactment of his earlier decree.
....will temporarily hold off this designation and step up our joint efforts to deal decisively with these vicious and ever-growing organizations!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2019
The idea of blacklisting Mexican gangs as terrorists was floated last month by Trump after 9 people were killed - members of a Mormon religious group - in an ambush of a convoy in the Mexican state of Sonora, reportedly an active battleground between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug gangs.
After the massacre in Sonora that killed many children, Trump offered Obrador assistance in investigating the killings so as to "ensure the perpetrators face justice”, according to a White House statement.
Earlier, Trump argued in separate statements that US forces were available to "help in cleaning out these monsters" adding that Washington only waited for Mexico's invitation.
In late November, the Mexican Foreign Ministry declared that it would work to reduce the flow of weapons and cash to criminal gangs across the border with the United States.
