President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday dismissed as “false” the statements of the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, who affirmed that the drug cartels control certain territories of Mexico over the Government.
“That is false, it is not true, about a year ago a commander of the United States Armed Forces declared the same thing, and he was informed that it was not true,” declared the president in his daily press conference.
“There is no place in the national territory where there is no presence of the authority. I can tell Mr. Blinken that, I think he knows, that we are constantly destroying clandestine laboratories in Sinaloa, in Sonora (states in the north of Mexico), everywhere”, he added.
López Obrador made these statements questioned by Blinken’s appearance in the US Senate, where on Wednesday he said that “it is fair to say that there are parts of Mexico that are controlled by organized crime and not the government.”
Even so, the Mexican ruler justified the remarks by the Secretary of State by arguing that he responded to a question from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, promoter of the controversial proposal to declare war on the Mexican cartels and consider them terrorists.
“He (Blinken) was reporting on the cooperation between governments, he is aware that we are working in a coordinated manner, but (Graham) interrupted him and said: let’s see. And then he had to say yes, unfortunately , that there were regions in Mexico dominated by drug traffickers,” he said.
The exchange of statements comes amid growing tension between Mexico and the United States over cartels, particularly those that traffic fentanyl.
The controversy has intensified after the kidnapping of four Americans and the murder of two of them this month on the border between the two countries, which has motivated Republicans in the United States to consider the cartels as terrorists.
In his appearance this week, Blinken was open to considering this proposal, but López Obrador denied it.
“It must be recognized that when they ask him and the spokesperson for the White House if they consider whether it is advisable to consider Mexican drug traffickers as terrorists, they said no,” he said.
The president argued that “there is an anticipated campaign in the United States for next year’s elections, so these meetings or these debates are held.”