Mexico City, Mexico — Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has instructed the Mexican ambassador and consuls in the United States to undertake a broad campaign of information and defense in the face of unacceptable attacks by legislators and former officials of the Republican Party.
In response to the indications of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Secretary of Foreign Relations held a meeting Monday in Washington, D.C. with Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma and the 52 Mexixan consuls in the American Union.
During the meeting, Secretary Ebrard and the consuls reviewed the recent attacks by some legislators and former Republican Party officials who have sought to blame Mexico for the crisis in the use of fentanyl in the United States, which in some cases, have reached to the extreme of proposing an intervention in Mexico.
“We are not going to allow Mexico to be run over,” Foreign Minister Ebrard told the 52 consuls gathered at the Mexican Cultural Institute.
In the fight against fentanyl, Mexico has been the main ally of the United States, pointing out that during this presidential term, Mexico has seized a record number of more than six tons of fentanyl, which has prevented billions of fatal doses.
The fight against fentanyl trafficking, he added, has cost hundreds of casualties for Mexican federal forces.
“With this cost of human lives, how is it that these gentlemen dare to question our commitment or, even worse, to ask for an intervention in our country?”
Ebrard has asked the ambassador and the consuls to hold informative meetings with the Mexican community and political actors and submit a weekly report on them in order to prevent a narrative based on lies that harms Mexico.
At the proposal of the consuls themselves, informative materials will be disseminated at the consulate headquarters and in local media.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard emphasized that beyond extreme positions, the governments of Mexico and the United States work within the framework of the Bicentennial Agreement to prevent deaths from the use of fentanyl and to prevent criminal groups from accessing high-powered weapons.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs said that in April, there will be a meeting in Washington between the security cabinets of both countries to identify additional steps for cooperation to combat fentanyl and arms trafficking.
“The national security authorities do not have a record of fentanyl production in Mexico, but place our country as a trafficking area for this opioid and its precursors, which come mainly from Asia,” he stated.
Foreign Minister Ebrard explained that in the current Administration, Mexico has followed a strategy based on the tightening of the legal and regulatory framework , expansion of supervision and surveillance mechanisms for controlled substances or dual use, strengthening deployment and surveillance in land and sea ports and customs and in the national territory and the expansion of public health services and attention to mental disorders.
He stressed that as a control measure, it was determined that the ports be administered by the Navy and customs by the Army.
