US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar lashed out at the previous federal government on Wednesday, saying its “hugs, not bullets” security strategy had failed and blaming former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to be responsible for the breakdown of bilateral security cooperation.

His remarks – perhaps the most pointed of his ambassadorial tenure to date – prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs (DRE) to send a diplomatic note to the US Embassy in Mexico.

“In the note, Mexico expresses its concern over the statements made by the United States Ambassador to our country,” the SRE said in a statement.

During a press conference at his official residence in Mexico City, Salazar also criticized what he called the Mexican government’s rhetoric that there is no major security problem in Mexico.

“To say there is no problem is to deny reality,” he said.

“The reality is that there is a very big problem in Mexico and that is why the (security) plan of President (Claudia) Sheinbaum must succeed,” Salazar said.

The ambassador, a frequent visitor to the National Palace when López Obrador was president, stated bluntly that “these are hugs, not bullets” (abrazos, no balazos) the security strategy implemented by the previous government “did not work”.

The United States supports the prevention side of the strategy – addressing the root causes of crime through social programs – but Mexico must also enforce the law to ensure there is no impunity for criminals, Salazar said.

“Security is the most important thing, the hinge of a democracy,” he said. “The Mexican people must not live in fear.”

Salazar charged that security coordination between the United States and Mexico “has unfortunately… failed over the past year, in large part because the previous president did not want to receive support from the United States.”

“He closed the door to (security) investments of more than $32 million because he didn’t want those investments to come to Mexico to help the Mexican people,” he said.

The U.S. government’s support was “rejected due to ideological issues or other explanations” not based on the reality of the security situation Mexico faces, Salazar said.

To underline what he considers to be the seriousness of the insecurity problem in Mexico, the ambassador mentioned persistent violence in Sinaloawhere infighting between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel has left many dead in recent months.

He also said that “the reality is that the Mexican people…do not live in security.”

Businessmen, “members of the press like you, those who work on street corners” and “those who own ranches” all face security risks, Salazar said.

“As the Sinaloa breeder who was killed on weekends because he was a leader,” he said.

Other instances of violence mentioned by Salazar included the assassination of a priest in Chiapas last month And the murders of two elderly Jesuit priests in Chihuahua in 2022.

He also hit back López Obrador’s assertion in September that the U.S. government was partly responsible for the wave of cartel violence in Sinaloa.

“Blaming others, blaming the United States…that’s not what’s necessary to achieve security,” Salazar said.

His frank assessment of Mexico’s security situation and his declaration that the “hugs, not bullets” security strategy has failed will likely be among his last public remarks as ambassador, as he will not remain in office once that Donald Trump will return to the White House in January.

Salazar, a former U.S. senator and interior secretary during the Obama administration, was nominated by US President Joe Biden in 2021and arrived in Mexico in September of the same year.

Her close relationship with Lopez Obrador embittered earlier this year after making critical remarks about the government’s judicial reform and due to what the Mexican government saw as a lack of transparency over the arrests suspected Sinaloa Cartel drug traffickers Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López at an airport near El Paso, Texas, in late July.

López Obrador announced at the end of August that the Mexican government’s relationship with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico was “on pause.”

“How are we going to allow (Salazar) to think that what we are doing is wrong,” AMLO said at the time.

On Wednesday, the ambassador said the Sheinbaum administration must work to strengthen the security relationship between Mexico and the United States as part of implementing its security strategy.

This strategy, outlined last month by Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, continues to focus on tackling the root causes of crime through social programs, but could allow for greater use of force against criminals. criminals, at least if the last few weeks are any indication of what’s to come.

Salazar also stressed the need to remove “corrupt people” from state governments as well as the importance of creating “a strong justice system” including effective police forces staffed by well-paid officers.

“You can’t pay a police officer next to nothing and expect them to do their job,” he said.

“…Police turn to corruption because they are not paid enough to live on,” Salazar said.

The Sheinbaum administration, he added, “needs to invest resources in…security.”

“…Republican austerity, as they say, will not help ensure the security of the Mexican people. They have to invest,” Salazar said.

The ambassador briefly discussed Trump and the Republican Party’s victory in last week’s US elections, saying the Democratic Party’s defeat “should hurt.”

Regarding Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Mexican exports and deport millions of undocumented migrants, Salazar simply said that “a lot of what is said” during politicians’ campaigning doesn’t come to fruition.

He hasn’t said when his term as ambassador will end, and it could be some time before Trump names a replacement, but it’s safe to say that Salazar is on his way out — and he obviously not afraid to say what he thinks. he leaves.

With the reports of Reform, The Financier And El País