Mexican President Andrés Manuel López
Obrador vowed not to allow the armed foreign intervention a century
after Mexico was last invaded, reflecting fears over United States
President Donald Trump's plan to designate the country's drug cartels as
terrorist groups.
Just two days after
he said he would not address the subject as a show of respect towards
his northern neighbor's Thanksgiving holiday celebration, the leftist
leader came out swinging during his daily press briefing Friday morning.
'Since
1914 there hasn't been a foreign intervention in Mexico and we cannot
permit that,' said López Obrador, referring to the U.S. occupation of
the port of Veracruz 105 years ago.
United States troops also entered Mexico in 1916, chasing revolutionary Pancho Villa after he killed U.S. citizens.
Trump has repeatedly offered military
assistance to help combat the cartels, but Mexico has consistently
declined the offer, even after the gangland massacre of a U.S.-Mexican
Mormon family this month.
The designation of groups as foreign terrorist organizations is aimed at disrupting their finances by imposing U.S. sanctions.
While
it does not directly give authority for overseas military operations,
many Mexicans are nervous it could lead to unilateral U.S. action
against gangs.
'Armed foreigners
cannot intervene in our territory,' the Mexican president said, instead
offering more cooperation with the United States on fighting drug gangs,
which have shown their power in a series of battles with security
forces and civilians in recent months.
In
an interview with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, broadcast on
Tuesday, Trump said the cartels would 'be designated' as terror
organizations, adding it was a plan he had working for 90 days.
The
U.S. president's statement came after a family member of the nine
Mormon mothers and children, all Americans with dual Mexican
nationality, who were assassinated by cartel gunmen November 4, filed a
petition on the White House web site calling for the U.S. leader to
target the criminal syndicates that have been at war with Mexico
since 2006 when former President Felipe Calderón launched an offensive
on gangs.
'The cartels control the flow
of opioids, heroin, methamphetamines, cocaine, ultra-deadly fentanyl,
and all other illegal drugs that are smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.
With seemingly unlimited resources it has proven almost impossible to
stop them,' the petitioner, identified by initials, B.L., wrote Sunday.
'They run major human trafficking
networks. They kidnap and extort with almost complete impunity. Their
unbridled acts of violence and murder have overrun our borders and
created an international crisis. They seek political power in order to
create a narco-state in Mexico. Each year, there are approximately 35%
more murders committed in Mexico than by all officially designated
terrorist groups combined. We cannot afford to continue the same failed
policies used to combat organized crime. They are terrorists, and it's
time to acknowledge it!'
The motion was
presented to urge Trump to take charge over the Sonora, Mexico,
massacre that claimed the lives of Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and her sons
Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3; Christina Marie Langford Johnson; and Rhonita
María Miller and her four children - her nine-month-old twins, Titus and
Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard.
The petition has gained 2,000 of the required 100,000 signatures since it was posted.
U.S.
Attorney General William Barr is scheduled to visit Mexico next week to
discuss security cooperation, Mexico's foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard
said earlier. The U.S. embassy in Mexico did not respond to a request
for comment.
Despite heavy criticism at home, López
Obrador conceded to a U.S. initiative launched in January called the
Migrant Protection Protocols that has forced nearly 59,000 migrants to
wait in Mexico for their U.S. immigration court hearings.
He
also sent the newly formed National Guard, created to tackle Mexico's
spiraling gang-fueled violence, to Mexico's borders to help stop
migrants from reaching U.S. soil.
López
Obrador stressed the good relations that exists between both
governments, assuring that Trump was not looking for a confrontation.
'It
was thought that it was inevitable that we would not fight but there
will never be a fight. Ever. That is what the noble office of politics
is for,' he said.
'It was invented to
avoid confrontation. We have a very good relationship with the United
States government. There is a friendly relationship.'
While
the two countries already work together extensively on combating
cartels, some U.S. security officials have said they find it harder to
work with López Obrador's government, which took office a year ago.
Gladys
McCormick, a security analyst at Syracuse University in New York, said
she expected López Obrador and Ebrard to 'put up more of a fight on this
issue.'
'Ebrard is waiting to hear
from Barr on what precisely such a designation will entail for Mexico
given the lack of details and precedent such designation carries,' she
said.