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Mexico’s president slams calls for US military to target cartels | Drugs News

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has rejected calls for the US military to intervene to stop violence by drug cartels in Mexico, saying such a move would violate the sovereignty of the land. water.

During a press conference on Thursday, Lopez Obrador said his government “will not allow any foreign government to interfere in our territory, much less allow the armed forces of the government to interfere. card”.

“Beyond being irresponsible, it’s an insult to the Mexican people,” he said, adding that Mexico “doesn’t take orders from anyone.”

On Wednesday, Dan Crenshaw, Republican of Texas, released a message in Spanish asking Lopez Obrador why he opposes the congressman’s proposal in January to allow US military force United targeting drug cartels in Mexico.

“The gangs are at war with us — poisoning more than 80,000 Americans with fentanyl every year, creating a crisis at our border and turning Mexico into a failed drug nation,” Crenshaw said in a statement. An announcement. declare on January 12 on the proposed legislation.

“The time has come for us to take aim at them directly. My legislation will put us at war with the gangs by authorizing the use of military force against the gangs. We cannot allow heavily armed murderous gangs to destabilize Mexico and import people and drugs into the United States.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Monday also said in a Fox News interview that it was time to “notify Mexico”. He supports the introduction of legislation that classifies some Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist groups”.

Drug gang violence in Mexico has come under scrutiny in the United States after four Americans kidnapped by armed men last Friday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement over the weekend that four Americans were taken away in a pickup truck after “unknown gunmen opened fire” on their vehicle.

“All four Americans were loaded into a vehicle and removed from the scene by armed men.”

Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal said a Mexican citizen was killed in the incident, which occurred when drug cartels tore through the streets.

The US citizens traveled to the northeastern Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, to undergo medical procedures. However, the city has been besieged by violence related to drug trafficking and other organized crime.

Mexican authorities frantically searched as the gang moved the four Americans around, even taking them to a medical clinic, “in order to create confusion and avoid an attempt to rescue them,” the regional governor said.

The state’s chief prosecutor, Irving Barrios, said the bodies and survivors were eventually found Tuesday in a log cabin in the eastern Matamoros countryside, guarded by a man who had died. arrested.

two of the abductees were killed while the other two were found alive, one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

Soldiers stand guard as they repatriate the bodies of Americans killed in a kidnapping in northern Mexico
Soldiers stand guard outside a morgue before transferring the bodies of two of four Americans kidnapped by gunmen in Matamoros, Mexico, March 9, 2023 [Daniel Becerril/Reuters]

Survivors were brought back to US soil on Tuesday in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs, escorted by Mexican military Humvees and National Guard trucks with machine guns.

On Thursday, a person claiming to be from the Mexican drug cartel allegedly involved in the kidnapping condemned the violence and said the group had handed over the perpetrators to authorities.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement source, the Scorpions faction of the Gulf gang apologized to Matamoros residents, the Mexican woman who died in the shooting, and four people America with their families.

Drug cartels have been known to issue announcements to intimidate opponents and authorities but also sometimes to address situations that could affect their business.

“We have decided to transfer those directly involved and responsible in the events, who acted at their own discretion and lacked discipline,” the letter read.

It added that the individuals involved went against the cartel’s rules, including “respecting the lives and welfare of innocent people”.

However, deadly kidnappings and backlash can complicate delicate efforts to promote closer cooperation between the US and Mexico on immigration and drug trafficking, among other issues.

Lopez Obrador said on Thursday that he would begin a public information campaign targeting Mexicans in the United States about the Republican-led proposal for U.S. military intervention.

If Republican lawmakers try to “use Mexico for their propaganda, elections and politics, we will urge not to vote for that party,” the Mexican president said.




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