Cartel, police shootout kills 21 in Mexico

An armed group of suspected drug cartel members stormed local government buildings in Villa Union, Mexico, near the Texas border on Sunday. During the security force response, 10 attackers and four policemen died. Seven more cartel members were killed after the attackers fled.

How are U.S. and Mexican officials responding? Just days before the shootout, President Donald Trump announced plans to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. The move would ban cartel members from entering the United States, make it illegal for Americans to knowingly assist them, and require financial institutions to block any funds connected to the groups. Trump hopes to launch operations against cartels inside Mexico, but Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday said he would not accept intervention from “armed foreigners” in domestic matters.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report about a drug cartel attack in Mexico last month that killed three women and six children, all of them dual Mexican-U.S. citizens.