By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House has tapped a career special forces operative with experience in counterterrorism operations to oversee Latin America policy at the National Security Council, two U.S. officials said.
The appointment of retired Air Force commander Michael Jensen as senior director of Western Hemisphere affairs at the NSC follows President Donald Trump publicly floating the idea of sending troops into Mexico to battle drug cartels.
In February, the Trump administration designated six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move that some Democrats and analysts believe could serve as a legal pretext for U.S. military action in Mexico or other foreign countries.
Jensen, who served in multiple special tactics groups over the course of more than two decades in the Air Force, had been nominated in February to serve as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. The administration pulled that nomination in mid-May, according to a congressional notice that did not give a reason.
Jensen has no obvious Latin America policy experience, according to his LinkedIn profile and publicly available documents. A 2008 article written by an Air Force public affairs officer said Jensen helped manage a “high-value target hunt” in Afghanistan, during which he “guided 31 close air support and surveillance aircraft during a 5-1/2 hour mission, which disrupted al-Qaeda operations.”
CBS reported in April that Jensen was a candidate for the post, though Jensen has only stepped into the position in recent days amid a broad shake-up at the NSC, said the U.S. officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Jensen, who also serves as a special assistant to the president in his new role.
TROOPS TO FIGHT CARTELS
Trump said on the campaign trail that he might send troops to Mexico to battle drug cartels. During the final year of his 2017-2021 presidency, he privately floated the idea of launching missiles into Mexico, according to a memoir by his second defense secretary, Mark Esper.
In May, Trump said he had offered to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum combat drug trafficking, an offer that she rebuffed.
Jensen’s appointment comes at a fraught time for the NSC, which helps coordinate U.S. foreign policy across a large number of agencies.
In late May, dozens of staffers were cut in a purge, the latest and most dramatic in a series of cuts that started in March. Mike Waltz, the first national security adviser, was replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in early May and Rubio now holds the top posts at both the NSC and the State Department.
In recent days, remaining NSC staffers have been told they will be more involved in implementing – rather than making – policy, according to several people briefed on conversations with top White House officials.
Several foreign missions, including those of major U.S. allies, have lost their counterparts at the NSC and are struggling to stay in close contact with the Trump administration, according to several foreign diplomats.
Still, the NSC has in recent days made some initial move to fill staffing gaps, according to three U.S. officials, with White House officials soliciting resumes from officials elsewhere in government.
Rubio has publicly urged the U.S. national security and diplomatic communities to renew their focus on Latin America, as the Trump administration attempts to crack down on narcotics trafficking and illegal immigration.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Don Durfee and Nia Williams)
Comments