MEXICO CITY — In a blistering critique, the highest U.S. diplomat in Mexico stated the nation shouldn’t be secure and that its leaders ought to cease denying widespread violence, make investments extra in safety and enhance cooperation with the US.
“To say there isn’t any downside is to disclaim actuality,” U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar instructed reporters this week. “And the fact is that there’s a very huge downside in Mexico.”
At her morning information convention on Thursday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum shot again , saying that her nation was open to “coordination” with its northern neighbor, however not “subordination.”
She identified that the ambassador — a political appointee who will possible get replaced within the Trump administration — has additionally praised Mexican cooperation.
“First he says one factor, then he says one thing else,” she stated.
Sheinbaum, who took workplace Oct. 1, has adopted a safety technique that carefully hews to that of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who eschewed direct confrontation with prison gangs in favor of offering better financial alternatives to at-risk youth within the hope of steering them away from crime — a coverage he referred to as “hugs not bullets.”
He often accused his adversaries of exaggerating the scope of killings and different crimes. The president relied on the navy, fairly than the police, to combat organized crime teams, that are amongst Mexico’s largest employers.
Salazar was as soon as shut with López Obrador. However the relationship cooled within the ultimate months of his presidency because the ambassador assailed plans to overtake the judiciary that critics noticed as a ruling-party energy play.
His feedback this week have been his most important evaluation but of Mexico’s strategy to crime and drug trafficking. He asserted that U.S.-Mexico safety coordination “has failed within the final yr, in nice half as a result of the earlier president didn’t need to obtain assist from the US.”
He additionally echoed critics in Mexico who’ve assailed Sheinbaum for failing to earmark extra funds to professionalize Mexico’s prison justice system — particularly the police, who make so little cash that officers usually wind up on gang payrolls.
“You can not pay a policeman virtually nothing and count on him to do his job,” Salazar stated.
Mexico despatched a diplomat be aware to Washington expressing displeasure with the admonitions from Salazar.
The dustup comes at a delicate second in Mexico, the place there may be deep concern about President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs, deploy U.S. troops to go after cartels, conduct mass deportations and additional militarize the border.
Mexico has seen continued gang wars, massacres and assassinations since Sheinbaum took workplace.
There was no instant response from López Obrador, a longtime mentor to Sheinbaum and founding father of the political social gathering for which she is now the standard-bearer.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25628420/Screen_Shot_2024_09_18_at_2.07.32_PM.png?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Pokémon TCG Pocket will allow you to commerce playing cards beginning early subsequent 12 months")
