In a strong rebuttal to Donald Trump’s accusation of an “intolerable alliance” between the Mexican government and drug traffickers, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has accused the US of harboring drug cartels and facilitating their operations in Mexico. During her morning press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum stated, “There is also organized crime in the United States and there are American people who come to Mexico with these illegal activities. Otherwise, who would distribute fentanyl in the cities of the United States?”
Sheinbaum’s comments came in response to a report published on Monday, which revealed that arrests of US citizens for offenses related to organized crime had increased by more than 450% during the tenure of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Sheinbaum urged Washington to not only help crack down on cartels in Mexico but also to address the issue within its own borders. She called on the US “to do its job in the US, to make the arrests that need to be made in order to halt the trafficking of drugs in its own country.”
The Trump administration has consistently criticized Mexico for the northward flow of drugs, particularly fentanyl, and has designated certain cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Trump also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico due to drug and migrant flows, leading Sheinbaum to agree to send an additional 10,000 national guard troops to the US-Mexico border.
Security experts indicate that Mexican organized crime groups are deeply entrenched in the United States and play a crucial role in the distribution of drugs such as fentanyl. Jack Riley, former head of the Chicago office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, stated, “They’re in virtually every corner of the country, no doubt about it. In terms of the control of the dope, the movement of narco money, I would say they’re number one.” He emphasized the need for cooperation between both countries to tackle these groups.
Riley also pointed out that American citizens are increasingly involved in smuggling drugs across the border. “Anybody that has dual citizenship, [or] US citizenship, can be influenced and corrupted by the cartels,” he said. “Almost all of that occurs at the border checkpoints in vehicles. It’s not the guy with the backpacks when they cross the Rio Grande.”
During her news conference, Sheinbaum also addressed Mexico’s dispute with Google Maps over the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, apparently at Trump’s behest. She noted that the government had exchanged correspondence with the tech giant and stated, “If necessary, we will file a civil suit. Even President Trump isn’t proposing that the entire Gulf of Mexico be called the ‘Gulf of America’, but only their continental shelf. So Google is wrong.”
Sheinbaum’s forceful statements highlight ongoing tensions between Mexico and the United States over drug trafficking and organized crime, calling for mutual accountability and cooperation to address these critical issues.
Source: The Guardian
