Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Thursday two reforms to the Constitution against “external interference” and to impose the “most severe penalty” on foreigners who intervene in Mexico after the United States declared six drug trafficking cartels terrorists.

In addition, the president reaffirmed in her morning conference that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) will expand its lawsuit against manufacturers and sellers of weapons in the United States to accuse them of accomplices in terrorism after this classification.

“What we want to make clear in the face of this designation is that we do not negotiate sovereignty, this cannot be an opportunity on the part of the US to invade our sovereignty, so they can give them the name they decide, but with Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination, not interference and less invasion,” he said.

Sheinbaum asked that “it be clear” that “there is no interference, there is no violation of sovereignty” despite the fact that the US State Department considers from now on the Sinaloa, Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), the Gulf, the Northeast, the New Michoacana Family and the United Cartels as terrorists.

“Both countries want to fight organized crime groups that commit illegal acts in both countries, and there we are working very well on coordination, but we have to guarantee that it is under collaboration and coordination, never violating Mexico’s sovereignty in any way,” he said.

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The change to article 40 of the Constitution will reinforce that “the people of Mexico under no circumstances will accept interventions, intrusions or any other act from abroad that is detrimental to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the Nation,” said the president.

This includes “coups d’état, interference in elections or the violation of Mexican territory, be it by land, water, sea or airspace.”

“Nor will he consent to any intervention in investigation and prosecution without the authorization and express collaboration of the Mexican State, within the framework of the applicable laws,” according to the head of the Executive.

Meanwhile, article 19 will warn that “any foreigner who carries out activities outside the law, linked” to these interferences, “will be imposed the most severe punishment possible, as well as unofficial preventive detention.”

After the appointment, the president raised her claims to the United States arms industry, the origin of almost three out of four weapons used by organized crime in Mexico, according to a report by the Department of Justice in January.

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The reform to article 19 also proposes that “any national or foreign national linked in the manufacture, distribution, alienation, transfer or internationalization to national territory in an illicit manner of weapons” shall be “imposed the most severe possible penalty”.

While the Foreign Ministry will expand the lawsuit it filed during the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) against American manufacturers and sellers of weapons, which it accuses of knowingly selling these supplies to cartels in Mexico.

“Given this appointment, there must be a link between those who sell weapons to these criminal groups that today have been cataloged with this name by the US Government, so there will be an expansion of this demand for complicity of those who sell weapons that are introduced” to Mexico, he said.