MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s president has made it clear that he would not heed U.S. directives to fight Mexican drug cartels, according to the Associated Press. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Friday that he was not going to act as a policeman for any foreign government and again argued that drugs are an American problem, not a Mexican one.
These statements further what López Obrador has said previously. As Emily’s Hope reported last year, the Mexican president has criticized U.S. pressure to curb the drug trade and complained about “rude threats” from U.S. legislators over the issue. He also has said that fentanyl is America’s problem and is caused by “a lack of hugs” in U.S. families.
“There is a lot of disintegration of families. There is a lot of individualism. There is a lack of love, of brotherhood, of hugs and embraces,” López Obrador said.
Despite refusing to go after cartels, the Mexican president did say on Friday that he would try to limit the flow of drugs into America.
“Of course, we are going to cooperate in fighting drugs, above all because it has become a very sensitive, very sad humanitarian issue because a lot of young people are dying in the United States because of fentanyl,” López Obrador said, according to the Associated Press.
Around 110,000 Americans have died over the past year from drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports that Mexico and China are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances, which are responsible for many of the deaths.