Lopez Obrador denies that US cartels control parts of Mexico

Photo of author

By Webdesk


Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has opposed a claim by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that parts of Mexico are controlled by drug cartels, calling the claim “false”.

“There is no place in the country where there are no authorities,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at a news conference on Friday.

The comment represents the Mexican president’s latest effort to assuage mounting criticism in the United States over the power of drug cartels in Mexico, which US lawmakers and officials say have fueled a US opioid epidemic.

The cartel’s recent kidnapping of a group of US citizens who had forced their way into northern Mexico has also sparked a Republican-led push for the US military to step in to deal with drug gang-related violence in Mexico.

At a US congressional hearing on Wednesday, Blinken said it was “fair to say” that parts of Mexico were under the control of powerful drug gangs, not the government.

At Friday’s press conference, Lopez Obrador replied, “That’s not true.”

The incident killed two of the four Americans kidnapped in early March in the northern border town of Matamoros, as well as a Mexican bystander.

The Gulf Cartel’s Scorpions faction later said it had turned over members of its own group it believed were responsible for the violence and issued an apology.

Lopez Obrador, a leftist leader who pledged to end the country’s 12-year drug war, has said increased US scrutiny over his administration’s handling is politically motivated ahead of the 2024 US election.

In March, he denounced Republican-led calls for the U.S. military to intervene in Mexico, saying Mexico City “would not allow any foreign government to intervene in our territory, let alone the armed forces of any government would intervene”.

“In addition to being irresponsible, it is an insult to the people of Mexico,” he said.

Lopez Obrador has also rejected claims that Mexico is disproportionately fueling the region’s fentanyl epidemic — a claim Blinken reiterated during his testimony this week.

“I still maintain that more fentanyl reaches the United States and Canada directly than Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said earlier this month. that while fentanyl manufacturing laboratories existed in the country, the raw materials used to make the drug came from Asia.

“I can tell Mr. Blinken that we are constantly destroying labs,” the Mexican leader said Friday.

Despite his campaign commitments, Lopez Obrador has been criticized for continuing what opponents call a rebranded but still overly militarized approach to drug cartels.

This included the creation of a new National Guard to ensure public safety, which has since been placed under the control of the military.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s murder rate has remained high since Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, with the country recording more than 31,000 violent homicides last year.

Earlier this week, Lopez Obrador called State Department officials “liars” in response to an agency report that said there was credible information in Mexico pointing to unlawful or arbitrary killings by police, military and other officials.

The report also describes enforced disappearances by government agents, as well as torture and inhumane treatment by security forces.

“Impunity and extremely low prosecution rates continued to be a problem for all crimes, including human rights violations and corruption,” said the report, which also criticized an increase in violence against journalists in Mexico.

“It’s not worth getting angry about, that’s just how they are,” Lopez Obrador said, referring to State Department officials.

A spokesman for the State Department responded to the president’s statements by saying that the agency stands by its report.



Source link

Leave a Comment

Share via
Copy link