President Donald Trump made history again on
Thursday with a declaration of war against North and South American drug cartels,
escalating a conflict that until now has taken place beneath the surface of
intercontinental diplomacy and remained within anti-trafficking frameworks.
In a brief memo sent to Congress,
the White House laid out its reasoning for declaring a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels,
which the administration referred to throughout the document as “terrorist organizations.”
