(Mexico City) Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that his country was “safer” than the United States, despite the recent kidnapping of four American nationals, two of whom died in captivity.
“Mexico is safer than the United States and there is no problem in traveling safely to Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said during his daily press conference.
The leftist leader made the comparison when asked about Washington’s warnings to Americans to avoid travel or take extra precautions in 30 of Mexico’s 32 states.
“Why this paranoia? the president said, taking the opportunity to once again reject the view of members of the US Congress that the US military should step in to fight drug traffickers wherever they are.
“This is a campaign against Mexico led by conservative politicians in the United States,” criticized Mr. Lopez Obrador, who last week called these parliamentarians “shabby” and accused them of engaging in “politician” maneuvers in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential elections.
“Unacceptable attacks”
The Mexican head of state received on Monday members of the United States Congress and the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, to explain his efforts against the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times more powerful than the heroin, and to address trade disputes between the two countries.
The group of eight parliamentarians, led by Jason Smith, Republican congressman from Missouri, included five other representatives of this party and two Democrats, the presidency said in a press release.
“We are partners […] for all time. Sometimes there are problems, disagreements, but we know that we are united,” Mr. Salazar told reporters after the meeting.
The position of Mr. Lopez Obrador was transmitted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard to the Mexican ambassador and to the 52 consuls stationed in the United States, Monday in Washington.
Mr Ebrard called on officials to carry out an information campaign to defend their country “in the face of unacceptable attacks by parliamentarians and former members of the Republican Party”, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On March 3, four Americans were kidnapped by suspected drug traffickers in the border town of Matamoros in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
Of the four Americans abducted, two were killed and both were later found, one with gunshot wounds and the other unharmed, on the outskirts of Matamoros. A Mexican bystander was also killed in the exchange of gunfire.