Trump Says US Will Begin Land Strikes on Cartels in Mexico

Now, some Venezuela updates. President Trump says Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Karina Machado is coming to Washington next week. NTD's Daniel Monahan has more on that, plus major news on the administration's plans for drug cartels. >> President Trump was asked about Maria Karina Machado's visit during an interview on Fox News's Hannity program. Well, I understand she's coming in next week sometime and I look forward to saying hello to her and I I've heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor. President Trump says the country has to be rebuilt before elections can be held. >> Right now, the country's become third world and they wouldn't know how to have an election right now. Uh we're going to rebuild the oil and the oil infrastructure will be in charge of it. It's going to do great and make a lot of money and uh we're going to take it from there. >> The president discussed Venezuela's oil reserves. >> All the big oil companies are coming in. They're going to make a lot of money and Venezuela's going to get some of that money and we're going to get some of that money and we brought stability to the region. >> Trump says Maduro's ouster has helped political prisoners go free >> and in many cases good people is what I understand. for prisoners. Nobody ever thought they'd be released. So, we're going to be working with them and leadership of the country. >> The government in Venezuela says it has decided to release a significant number of Venezuelan and foreign detainees as a gesture affirming its broad intention to seek peace. Two prominent Venezuelan opposition figures were among those set free yesterday. Approximately 2200 people were arrested by Venezuelan authorities following the country's disputed presidential election in 2024. According to Amnesty International, President Trump says the United States will begin launching strikes on cartels in Mexico. The move comes after the president says the US has knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water. speaking on Fox News. >> We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It's very, very sad to watch and see what's happened to that country. >> According to the CDC, the rate of drug overdose deaths quadrupled from around eight deaths per 100,000 people in 2002 to around 32 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022. There were about 80,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2024, 110,000 in 2023. President Trump also discussed the widespread protests in Iran, saying in the past the regime has murdered protesters on mass, so they played rough. And I said, "If they do that, we're going to hit them very hard. Well, we're going to hit them hard. We're ready to do it. If they do that, we're going to hit them hard." And so far, for the most part, there's been some of it, but for the most part, they haven't. >> The president expressed admiration for the Iranian people and repeated his warning. >> These people are totally unarmed people, and they love their country. They want something to happen. Look at their country. They they've gone they've gone back 150 years. But I've told them that if they do anything bad to these people, we're going to hit them very hard. Iran has been in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout since yesterday. According to the internet monitoring group Netblocks, the tactic has been used in the past by the regime during violent crackdowns to prevent footage from showing the killing and to shut down communication. Daniel Monahan, NTD News.