Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday rebuked calls from some U.S. lawmakers advocating military action in Mexico against drug cartels, describing the proposals as threats to Mexican sovereignty.
“We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less that a government’s armed forces intervene,” Lopez Obrador said during a regular news conference.
The kidnapping of four Americans – two of whom were killed – in a northern border state intensified calls from Republican lawmakers in Washington to take a tougher line on organized crime.
Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw on Wednesday released a message in Spanish on Twitter asking Lopez Obrador why he opposes a proposal the congressman introduced in January authorizing military force targeting drug cartels in Mexico.
“In addition to being irresponsible, it is an offense to the people of Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said during the news conference, adding that Mexico “does not take orders from anyone.”
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Monday said in a Fox News interview that it was time to “put Mexico on notice” and advocated introducing legislation to classify some Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist groups.”
The fatal kidnappings and backlash could complicate delicate efforts to foster closer collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico on immigration and the trafficking of drugs, particularly ultra-lethal fentanyl.
Lopez Obrador said he would begin a public information campaign aimed at Mexicans in the United States about the Republican-led proposal.
If Republican lawmakers try to “use Mexico for their propagandist, electoral and political purposes, we will make a call to not vote for that party,” Lopez Obrador said.
President Joe Biden has been warned against intervening in Mexico’s domestic affairs by its President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, amid the latest developments in last week’s kidnapping of four Americans.
On Tuesday, Mexican officials announced that two of the U.S. citizens who had been kidnapped in a Mexican border city just south of Brownsville, Texas – Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard – had been found dead. The other two – Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams – were rescued and returned to the U.S. A suspect is in custody.
During his daily press conference, López Obrador addressed the news, saying that Mexican authorities were “working and cooperating” with their American counterparts, but that his government wouldn’t allow “foreign countries” to intervene.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has echoed these remarks, tweeting that the U.S. military should be stationed at the border and “strategically strike” to take out the cartels, which she said “control” the Mexican government and people.
“Our military is competent and should take [the cartels] out swiftly,” the Georgia Republican said. “Make an example out of these monsters.”
Matamoros, the city in the Tamaulipas state where the Americans had traveled to last week, has been a stronghold for the drug-trafficking Gulf Cartel, which has used the city as a key pipeline for moving illegal drugs across the border.
The latest incident has drawn national attention to the violent realities that many Mexicans have lived in for years. In Tamaulipas alone, thousands have disappeared since the government declared war on the cartels in 2006 and the terror in the area has only been escalated by wars between the factions.
In a statement made Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said that the four U.S. citizens were shot at by gunmen shortly after crossing into Mexico last Friday, the gunmen then herded the Americans from their white minivan to another vehicle before they fled the scene with them.
A travel advisory has been in place for Tamaulipas since October. The State Department has issued a “Do Not Travel” advisory for the state, noting that “Violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common in Mexico.”