In a press conference Thursday, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador rebuked U.S. politicians for proposing direct military intervention against the drug cartels and asserted that fentanyl is not Mexico’s problem, but America’s.
The move comes after Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said he would propose legislation to designate cartels as foreign terrorist groups, setting the stage for the U.S. to use military force if necessary.
“Here, we do not produce fentanyl, and we do not have consumption of fentanyl,” López Obrador said, as quoted by the Associated Press. “Why don’t they take care of their problem of social decay?”
López Obrador listed reasons that he thought Americans might be turning to fentanyl, including the pressures created by single-parent families, parents who kick grown children out of their home, and people who put elderly relatives in old-age homes “and visit them once a year.” He suggested that the U.S. use family values to fight drug addiction.
He made these statements despite overwhelming evidence that fentanyl is produced and processed in Mexico as well as indications that it is consumed at higher rates there than reported.
The Mexican president also rejected suggestions from U.S. politicians that Mexico would allow direct military intervention from the U.S.
At a press conference on Monday, Graham said: “We’re going to unleash the fury and might of the United States against these cartels. 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, who is working with Senator John Kennedy (R., La.) on the proposal, clarified that drug labs would be the target and that the U.S. would not be invading Mexico.
However, López Obrador made it clear that he takes the proposals as threats, calling them “an insult to Mexico and a lack of respect for our independence and sovereignty.”
Mexican foreign secretary Marcelo Ebrard joined López Obrador in rejecting the Graham–Kennedy proposal.
“It is obvious that this is an electoral strategy because, in addition to being impracticable, Mexico would never allow something like this. The consequences would be catastrophic for bilateral anti-drug cooperation,” Ebrard tweeted.
López Obrador also threatened to launch a campaign against Republicans among Mexicans and other Hispanics who live in the U.S.
“We are going to issue a call not to vote for that party, because they are inhuman and interventionist,” he said.
Representative Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas), who also has called for military force against the cartels, responded to the Mexican president’s threat.
“Bring it,” Crenshaw tweeted.
“Get a grip,” he added. “You should be campaigning against the cartels who are MURDERING your own people, not the Americans who want to help eradicate them.”