José Díaz Briseño/ Reform Agency
Friday, March 17, 2023 | 06:54
Washington DC, United States.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seeks to deceive Mexicans about the serious security situation in Mexico by mistakenly stating that there is no fentanyl manufacturing in Mexico, said influential US Senator Bob Menendez.
In an interview with the MSBNC network, the also president of the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Upper House insisted that the “Hugs No Bullets” policy implemented by López Obrador against drug cartels since 2018 has not yielded sufficient results. .
“(López Obrador) said that there is no fentanyl manufacturing in Mexico. That is simply false. Either he is deceiving himself or he is trying to deceive the Mexican people. But we certainly are not deceiving ourselves. This has great consequences for the United States.” Menendez said.
Contrary to reports from the US government as well as journalistic investigations, López Obrador denied this Thursday once again that fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico, assuring that it comes directly from Asia and that in clandestine laboratories in Mexico it is only packaged in pills.
Since 2014, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has assured in its annual reports the existence of illegal fentanyl production in Mexico, but it was in 2021 when it warned of the involvement of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel. Jalisco New Generation (CGJN).
“When he took office, President López Obrador said: we are not going to use more bullets to deal with the cartels. We are going to send them kisses. That has not worked very well,” added the Democratic legislator who sets the agenda for the issues on foreign policy in the Senate.
Since at least 2022, Senator Menendez has expressed strong criticism of President López Obrador for his attacks against the National Electoral Institute (INE), for the politicization of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) as well as for the record of violations to human rights.
