U.S. drug report questions Mexico’s crackdown on drug trafficking

President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday that Mexico will respond “softly, softly” and with “love and peace” to the finding by the U.S. government that his country needs to do more to stop drug trafficking .

López Obrador said he did not agree with all the findings in the U.S. annual report, which listed Mexico among “major drug transit or major illicit drug-producing countries.”

He said Mexico “is working every day” to fight drug trafficking and “our conscience is clear.”

“The Foreign Relations Department is going to issue a statement, but what I told the secretary this morning was ‘peace and love, softly, softly softly,’” the president said.

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“This is a report that the U.S. government brings out every year, and it has some good things and some we do not accept,” López Obrador added. “We are not going to get into a political confrontation; we have a very good relationship with the U.S. government.”

The Trump administration noted in the report Wednesday that Mexico has made progress, but said it “must clearly demonstrate its commitment to dismantling the cartels” and do more to combat the synthetic opioid fentanyl and reduce methamphetamine production and smuggling. Mexico is the main U.S. supplier of meth, and along with China, the main U.S. source of fentanyl.

Next year, the U.S. might consider issuing a determination that Mexico “failed demonstrably to uphold its international drug control commitments,” which could revive resentments similar to the U.S. drug ‘de-certification’ procedure of decades past.

But López Obrador said: “We have nothing to fear, and moreover, we have to be very careful because there are elections in the United States. So it is better to wait for a month and a half — there is not much time left — and this does not merit an angry or energetic response.”

The Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2021 mentions that Unless the Mexican government demonstrates substantial progress in the coming year backed by verifiable data, Mexico will be at serious risk of being found to have failed demonstrably to uphold its international drug control commitments. “”

A de-certification of Mexico’s anti-drug fight would imply a halt on financial assistance and Washington’s support in international organizations.

Trump stressed in the document that the seizure of drugs in Mexico is still low and that cartels represent a clear threat to Mexico and the capacity of the government to exert effective control over several parts of the territory.

He added that Mexican cartels “Mexican cartels take advantage of uneven precursor chemical controls in Mexico to manufacture deadly drugs, such as fentanyl, inside Mexico and smuggle them into the United States.”

Moreover, he said Mexico approved reforms for the seizure of assets in addition to increasing the extradition of drug traffickers to the U.S. Likewise, he said, there was substantial progress to complete its first fieldwork on opium in 17 years, in addition to generating an anti-drug strategy.

Nevertheless, Trump asserted “Mexico must clearly demonstrate its commitment to dismantling the cartels and their criminal enterprises and do more to protect the lives of Mexican and American citizens threatened by these groups.”

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The U.S. President said that in his 2019 release, he warned that he “would consider determining Mexico had failed demonstrably to uphold its international drug control commitments if it did not intensify its efforts to increase poppy eradication, interdict illicit drugs before they cross the border into the United States, increase its prosecutions of drug traffickers and seize their assets, and develop a comprehensive drug control strategy.”

The memorandum adds that “a country’s presence on the foregoing list is not necessarily a reflection of its government’s counternarcotics efforts or level of cooperation with the United States.”

It adds that Mexico “remains the source of nearly all heroin and methamphetamine seized in the United States, and a transit route for most of the cocaine available in our country.” The U.S. President urged Mexico to continue with key criminal extraditions, increase investigations, and drug seizures, among other measures.

Trump said, “The United States remains ready to deepen its partnership with Mexico to address these shared challenges and welcomes the opportunity to develop joint drug control goals with Mexico and bilateral investigations built on transparent and open sharing of investigative information and evidence leading to successful prosecutions.”

Along with Mexico, the memorandum includes countries like Afghanistan, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

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