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Mexico (AFP) – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected this March 24 that drug cartels control areas of Mexico, as pointed out by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. One more chapter of the rhetorical exchange between both North American neighbors.
“That is false, it is not true,” said López Obrador at his usual press conference, and assured that “there is no part of the territory where there is no presence of the authority.”
Last Wednesday, during an appearance before the US Senate on the budget for fiscal year 2024, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked Blinken if drug traffickers control areas of Mexico.
“I think it’s fair to say yes,” replied the Secretary of State during the hearing, which addressed the opioid crisis, particularly the deadly fentanyl that is trafficked by Mexican mafias.
López Obrador expressed that he opposes any “anti-Mexican campaign” for “electoral purposes”, insinuating that the issue is being politicized in the United States in view of the 2024 presidential elections of that country.
The US does not rule out declaring the Mexican cartels as terrorist groups
Graham proposed “declaring the Mexican cartels foreign terrorist organizations under US law,” an initiative that if approved would open the door for US troops to fight them wherever they are.
Asked by the senator if he would consider declaring the Mexican gangs terrorists, Blinken replied: “Yes, we certainly would.”
The Mexican president has suggested that Mexico and the United States prohibit the use of fentanyl for medical purposes, as part of the fight against trafficking and consumption of this opioid.
The proposal arose after the United States anti-drug agency (DEA) asked the Mexican government to “do more” against this substance, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin and to which 70,000 overdose deaths in the United States were attributed in 2022 alone. Joined.
Claims from Washington rose in tone after the kidnapping, on March 3, of four Americans in the Mexican city of Matamoros (northern border), two of whom died at the hands of their captors, alleged drug traffickers.
The Mexican government claims that since 2018 it has seized at least six tons of fentanyl.
