The US and Mexico disagree on the origin of fentanyl before a bilateral meeting

The White House reacted Wednesday to the recent affirmation of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, indicating that his country does not produce fentanyl, a synthetic drug that kills thousands of Americans every year.

“We know that the chemical components from China reach Mexico. We know that fentanyl is being produced in Mexico, ”she said in an interview with the voice of america the director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, Rahul Gupta.

The words of the US official come after the Mexican president argued at a press conference last Monday: “If it is not produced in China, where is it produced? (…) Fentanyl is not produced in Mexico, but we want to help”.

For his part, the person in charge of anti-drug policy at the White House added that, despite everything, the two governments are working, together with Canada, “in a mutually respectful manner” to combat the scourge that caused death by overdose. of more than 70,000 Americans in 2021, according to official data.

In this sense, precisely on Wednesday the Mexican government announced the creation of a commission to combat the trafficking of synthetic drugs, arms and ammunition. The commission will be led mainly by members of López Obrador’s cabinet, according to reported he Official Journal of the Federation.

On Thursday, delegations from the US, Mexico and Canada will meet in Washington to address the issue, according to what López Obrador himself reported this week.

Some US lawmakers have pressured the Biden Administration to take a tougher line and increase pressure on Mexico to crack down on criminal cartels accused of producing and trafficking most of the fentanyl entering the United States. USA.

A group of Republicans have even called for the US military to bomb Mexican cartels and their laboratories inside Mexico, something that was dismissed by National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

“The administration is not considering military action in Mexico,” Watson explained in a shared statement to the VOA. “We have strong law enforcement cooperation with Mexico, which has allowed us to take successful action against cartels, transnational criminal organizations, drug traffickers and people smugglers, and that will continue.”

According to a report from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), drug seizures on the southern border rose 6% last February, compared to January, while those of fentanyl increased 58%. .

the role of china

the chinese government answered last week to a letter from López Obrador assuring that there is no illegal opioid trafficking between China and Mexico, not to mention the chemical components that the Drug Control Administration (DEA) assures are sent to the North American country, where the drug is synthesized.

Still, Gupta noted that the White House is differentiating between the government in Beijing and criminal elements inside China that are transporting the precursor chemicals to Mexico.

“The Treasury Department has already imposed more than 100 sanctions on entities and individuals in the past year alone. That includes Chinese companies, chemical companies, and Chinese people,” he told the VOA. “Therefore, we will continue to take action against criminal elements working to ship these precursor chemicals that are killing Americans.”

China suspended counternarcotics cooperation with Washington in August 2022.

[Con información de Reuters]

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