Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has announced an “information campaign” targeting U.S. Republicans who are calling for military action against Mexican drug labs.
“Starting today we are going to start an information campaign for Mexicans who live and work in the United States and for all Hispanics to inform them of what we are doing in Mexico and how this initiative by the Republicans, in addition to being irresponsible, is an offense against the people of Mexico, a lack of respect for our independence, our sovereignty,” Obrador said Thursday, according to Fox News.
He added that, “if they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propaganda, electoral, and political purposes, we are going to call for them not to vote for that party, because it is interventionist, inhumane, hypocritical, and corrupt.”
The campaign, Obrador said, would ensure that “not one vote” from Hispanic Americans would go to Republicans, Fox reported.
His threat came in response to multiple Republican lawmakers demanding that strong action be taken against drug smuggling across the southern border. (RELATED: ‘Americans Are Being Slaughtered’: Doocy Presses Jean-Pierre On Fighting Drug Cartels At Southern Border)
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina announced Wednesday that he intends to introduce legislation that would allow the U.S. to “unleash” the military into Mexico against drug cartels.
Lindsey Graham: If the Mexican government doesn’t clean up their act, we’ll clean it up for them #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/yev6v23he7
— Jesse Watters Primetime (@jesseprimetime) March 7, 2023
“We’re going to destroy their business model and their lifestyle because our national security and the security of the United States as a whole depends on us taking decisive action,” Graham said, according to Fox. “Not to invade Mexico, not to shoot Mexican airplanes down, but to destroy drug labs that are poisoning Americans.”
“We’d like to help you, but we’re not going to sit on the sidelines anymore as a nation and watch our neighbor become a narco-state that kills more Americans in a single year than we lost in Vietnam,” Graham added, Fox reported.
Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas issued a similar call for action, including the authorization of military force, and requested a partnership with Obrador.
All we want is to finally take on the powerful criminal elements that terrorize the Mexican people, pay off and threaten Mexican politicians, and poison Americans.
You’re against that, Mr. President? Who do you represent? The cartels or the people?
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) March 6, 2023
Translation:
Stop defending your little narco friends and take action to stop fentanyl. And stop with these lies about a supposed “military invasion.” All we want is for our armed forces to work together.Or maybe you’d prefer that México be conquered by the narcos??
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) March 10, 2023
However, the Mexican President has rebuffed such requests and instead told U.S. lawmakers to “take care of their problem of social decay,” also claiming that, “Here [in Mexico] we do not produce fentanyl, and we do not have consumption of fentanyl,” Fox reported.
Contrary to his claims, government data has consistently found Mexican cartels to be responsible for the increase of fentanyl in the U.S.
The federal Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking released a report in February 2022 which found Mexico to be the “dominant source” of fentanyl in the U.S., while smaller amounts were found to be coming from China.
“These drugs are synthesized entirely from chemicals (sometimes unregulated chemicals) that are easily acquired from countries with large chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, such as China and India,” the bipartisan commission wrote. “Not only does the highly profitable synthetic drug trade kill tens of thousands of Americans each year but, in Mexico, where the vast majority of these drugs are produced or transited, drug trafficking also contributes to corruption, challenges state security, and fuels extreme violence.”