Mexico City, Mexico — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum made her position known Thursday regarding the recent statement of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar.
Sheinbaum reacted after Salazar held a press conference where he criticized former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s strategy of “hugs, not bullets.”
Salazar made the critical security strategy comments Wednesday aimed at López Obrador saying throughout his six-year term he did not accept help from the Government of Joe Biden.
According to Salazar, the U.S. government offered López Obrador $32 million USD to combat arms and drug trafficking between the two nations. He says López Obrador declined the offer.
“When we talk about republican austerity, in the matter of security, it is the same thing as saying it in English: Don’t put the effort into supporting the police, so what happens? The police turn to corruption because they are not given enough to live on (…) That is what scares one, that there will not be the investment that is required here in Mexico to truly reach a time when the insecurity that exists will be resolved,” Salazar told the media.
“It is worth saying that there are differences between what the U.S. ambassador says one day and what he says the next; such was the case with the reform of the Judicial Branch. On one occasion he said that he thought it was good and a week later he said that it was going to be very bad for Mexico,” Sheinbaum said Thursday.
During her press conference, Sheinbaum asked her team to project the statements that the diplomat offered in April when he celebrated the actions carried out in collaboration with the Mexican authorities, the same actions that led to the arrest of wanted criminals including Rafael Caro Quintero, Joaquín Guzmán Lorea and Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas.
“So, which statement did we hear, the one from yesterday or the one from a few months ago? There must be consistency, there must be logic in the statements that one makes, one cannot not declare one thing first and then declare another,” she said.
Sheinbaum said she regretted the statements made by Salazar but recalled that Mexico is a free and sovereign country.
“Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country. We coordinated with President Biden. President López Obrador had a high-level meeting which they called the bicentennial dialogue on different issues: drug trafficking, arms trafficking because it is on one side and the other, migration, security.
“There is coordination and there will continue to be coordination because it is very important, because we have a common border. There has to be high-level talks (…) in addition, we are commercial partners but not subordination, no,” Sheinbaum said to the press.
During her conference she stressed that both countries share many things, not only culture, trade or even families, but also problems, so it is up to these two nations to coordinate to find a solution.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a note sent to the U.S. Embassy regarding Salazar’s statements.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs that it has sent a diplomatic note to the Embassy of the United States in Mexico, regarding the statements made by Ambassador Ken Salazar during the press conference held on Wednesday, November 13.
“In the note, Mexico expressed its surprise at the messages issued by the current United States ambassador in our country.”
