Is Mexico’s President Working With US To Stop Deadly Fentanyl Wave?
ANALYSIS – Maybe the realistic threat of the U.S. taking some sort of limited military action against the Mexican drug cartels is having an effect on Mexico’s socialist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
Because Joe Biden’s administration is certainly not the reason — more likely though, this is just wishful thinking and AMLO, as the president is better known, is just pretending to play nice.
Still, AMLO now appears to be quietly meeting with American lawmakers on security and drug policy.
This, after several prominent GOP lawmakers recently called for the authority to use military force against the drug cartels, as part of the broader battle to protect our borders.
A massive wave of illegal Fentanyl is today killing thousands of young Americans each month (over 100,000 in a year) thanks to the Mexican drug cartels which control parts of the border.
The deadly drug is made in Mexico with precursor chemicals shipped from China.
These cartels along the border also recently kidnapped and murdered several Americans who legally crossed the border into Mexico. Others have disappeared. (RELATED: Mexican Drug Cartels Worried About GOP Calls To Use American Military Against Them)
Earlier AMLO delivered insulting lectures blaming the U.S. for the fentanyl overdose crisis because American families don’t hug their kids enough. (RELATED: Mexican President Says Mexico Is Safer Than US, But Murder Rate Is 4x Higher)
And this week, AMLO sent his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, to Washington, D.C., to mobilize Mexico’s 52 consulates, the most foreign consulates in the U.S., to launch a nationwide information campaign “in defense of our country,” he said, following “unacceptable attacks” by GOP legislators.
In what I called foreign election interference, AMLO also called on Mexican Americans and U.S. Hispanics to vote against Republicans.
But now a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers met with AMLO over the weekend.
Six Republicans and five Democrats met with the Mexican president.
And they report he told them he would work with China to stop their shipments of fentanyl precursors that are brought into Mexico and processed before being smuggled into the United States.
According to their press release, Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees, led the congressional delegation (CODEL) which returned to the U.S. Monday afternoon.
This month, Cornyn visited the U.S.-Mexican border and called on Joe Biden to enforce existing U.S. immigration laws.
In addition to their meeting with AMLO, the group also met with intelligence, drug enforcement and government officials in Mexico.
Senators Chris Coons, D-Del., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., along with Representatives Tony Gonzales (TX-23), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Veronica Escobar (TX-16) and Maria Salazar (FL-27) rounded out the rest of the delegation.
Their press release stated that they received:
…briefings from U.S. intelligence officials, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar on the United States’ security posture with regards to Mexico, recent killings of Americans in the country, efforts to stop drug trafficking, and illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The delegation shared their concerns with Mexico’s handling of these issues with President López Obrador and members of his administration.
“One of the interesting parts is he agreed to meet with China on how they could prevent getting some of the raw materials, the precursors, from China,” Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told The Hill.
“So that in itself acknowledges the fact that China is sending these things through, mainly through Manzanillo and some of the ports on that side of Mexico.”
However, the threats of U.S. military action from GOP lawmakers have also helped AMLO whip the country into a nationalistic frenzy. And I trust his actions more than his words.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
