Mexican president reacts to leading United States diplomat’s remarks in most current row over violence sustained by drug gangs.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has actually pressed back versus a claim by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken that parts of Mexico are managed by drug cartels, calling the claims “incorrect”.
“There is no location in the nation that does not have the existence of authorities,” Lopez Obrador informed press reporters throughout a press conference on Friday.
The remark represents the president’s newest effort to eliminate installing criticism in the United States around the power of drug cartels in Mexico, which American lawmakers and authorities stated have actually sustained a United States opioid epidemic.
A current lethal cartel kidnapping of a group of United States people who had actually crossed into northern Mexico likewise has actually triggered a Republican-led push for the United States military to step in to deal with drug gang-related violence in Mexico.
Throughout a United States congressional hearing on Wednesday, Blinken stated it was “reasonable to state” that parts of Mexico were under the control of effective drug gangs and not the federal government.
At Friday’s press conference, Lopez Obrador reacted: “That is incorrect.”
2 of the 4 Americans who were abducted in early March in the northern border town of Matamoros along with a Mexican spectator were eliminated in the occurrence.
The Scorpions faction of the Gulf Cartel later on turned over individuals it stated were Scorpion members accountable for the violence and released an apology.
Lopez Obrador, a left-wing leader who worked on a promise to end the nation’s 12-year drug war, has actually stated increased United States analysis of his federal government’s technique has actually been politically inspired ahead of the 2024 United States elections.
In March, he knocked Republican-led require the United States military to intervene in Mexico, stating Mexico City was “not going to allow any foreign federal government to intervene in our area, much less that a federal government’s militaries step in”.
“In addition to being reckless, it is an offense to individuals of Mexico,” he stated.
Lopez Obrador likewise has actually turned down the accusation that Mexico is disproportionately sustaining the fentanyl epidemic in the area, a claim that Blinken duplicated throughout his statement today.
“I preserve that more fentanyl reaches the United States and Canada straight than reaches Mexico,” Lopez Obrador stated this month, including that while fentanyl production laboratories existed in the nation, the raw products utilized to make the drug were originating from Asia.
“I can inform Mr Blinken, we’re continuously ruining laboratories,” the Mexican leader stated on Friday.
Regardless of his project promises, Lopez Obrador has actually been criticised for continuing what challengers call a rebranded however still extremely militarised technique to drug cartels. His policies have actually consisted of the production of a nationwide guard force to manage public security, which has actually considering that been moved under the control of the armed force.
The murder rate in Mexico has actually stayed high given that Lopez Obrador took workplace in 2018. The nation tape-recorded more than 31,000 murders in 2015.
Today, Lopez Obrador called United States Department of State authorities “phonies” over a firm report that stated there was reliable details in Mexico indicating illegal or approximate killings by authorities, military and other authorities.
The report likewise comprehensive required disappearances by federal government representatives along with abuse and inhumane treatment by security forces.
“Impunity and incredibly low rates of prosecution stayed an issue for all criminal activities, consisting of human rights abuses and corruption,” stated the report, which likewise criticised an uptick in violence versus reporters in Mexico.
“It’s unworthy snapping about. That’s simply how they are,” stated Lopez Obrador, describing state department authorities.
A department spokesperson reacted to the president’s declarations by stating the firm waits its report.
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Al Jazeera and news firms