By MARIA VERZA

MEXICO CITY (AP) — American Ambassador Ken Salazar Mexico on Wednesday criticized Mexico’s failure to accept aid in the fight against drug cartels, saying the country had “closed the doors” to security cooperation.

At a news conference, Salazar launched his harshest criticism yet of widespread violence, police corruption and the Mexican government’s misguided attitude that “there is no problem.”

“When they just say ‘there’s no problem, we have these statistics to show people there’s no problem,’ that’s not based in reality,” Salazar said. “There is a very big problem.”

Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy “expressing surprise” at Salazar’s statement, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

Salazar city ​​of violence in recent days in the state of Sinaloa, in the north of the country, for example. Sinaloa state police chief Gerardo Mérida said Wednesday that authorities found between five and seven bodies on the side of a road, but were still counting body parts to see how many there were. had some.

“There are a bunch of various bodies, with what we found we identified five bodies, but some are in pieces, they were dismembered, there are seven,” Mérida said.

Sinaloa’s embattled governor, Ruben Rocha, This seemed to characterize Mexico’s attitude when it declared on Tuesday – after a similar number of bodies were dumped on the side of the roads – that “we are fine, we will get over this soon”.

Salazar countered that in Sinaloa, “the dead can be seen everywhere.”

Salazar had previously defended many actions of the Mexican government, but now claims that former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “hugs, not balls” The strategy of not confronting the cartels “didn’t work.”

López Obrador left office on September 30, but his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, has pledged to continue this policy, even under his leadership. troops seem more willing to open fire.

Fighting between two factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel breaks out after two drug capos – one from each faction – flew to the United States and were arrested there on July 25.

Drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López were apprehended in the United States after flying on a small plane.

Zambada later claimed he had been kidnapped and forced to board the plane by Guzmán López, sparking a violent battle between Zambada’s faction and the “Chapitos” group led by the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Mexico later accused the United States of arresting the capos, saying it caused an outbreak of violence. Salazar said Mexico subsequently ended its anti-drug cooperation as well.

“From there, things totally escalated, the Mexican government shut down,” Salazar said. The ambassador also criticized efforts by López Obrador and Sheinbaum to downplay the problem of crime and violence, saying the problem was exaggerated and crime statistics were declining.

Salazar did not explain why he thought the Mexican government’s numbers were unreliable, but in recent days the government appears to have changed how it releases homicide figures.

“The reality for the Mexican people, and that concerns businessmen, members of the press like you who work on the streets, those who own ranches, like the rancher killed in Sinaloa this weekend because he was a leader, they don’t live in security,” Salazar said.

The continuing violence “is a very serious problem in Mexico and to say that there is no problem, to blame someone else, to blame the United States, is obviously not ( the solution),” he continued.

He also criticized López Obrador for refusing “$32 million,” an apparent reference to López Obrador’s decision to withdraw from a U.S.-funded program aimed at giving money to train and equip the Mexican police.

“It was rejected because of ideological issues and other explanations,” Salazar said. López Obrador said at the time that he did not want American helicopters and weapons, but that at that time most American money was going to training, professionalization and to legal reform.

After taking office in 2018, López Obrador also cut funding for the police force and gave the Army, Navy, and militarized National Guard the primary role in law enforcement.

“The police become corrupt because they don’t make enough to live on,” Salazar said. “You can’t pay a police officer next to nothing and expect him to do his job. »

Salazar was previously known for defending López Obrador despite his constant efforts to militarize the forces of order, concentrate power, eliminate regulatory and oversight agencies, and support Mexican state-owned companies, even at the expense of U.S. companies.

It’s unclear whether Wednesday’s critical shift in his rhetoric was in any way linked to Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s U.S. presidential election. Trump has long criticized Mexico.

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Originally published: November 14, 2024 at 4:29 a.m. PST