President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed Thursday that the United States government was partly to blame for a wave of cartel violence that has claimed more than 40 lives in Sinaloa in the past two weeks.
When asked at a morning press conference whether the US was “sharedly responsible” for violence stemming from the conflict between the “Los Mayos” and “Los Chapitos” factions of the Sinaloa CartelLópez Obrador gave a firm response.
“Yes, of course, yes,” he said.
López Obrador stressed that the United States was partly responsible for the outbreak of violence in Culiacán and its surroundings because the country carried out “operations” that resulted in the arrest of alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García in the US on July 25.
By “operation” he apparently meant a negotiation with another alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader, Joaquín Guzmán López, which he believed led to Zambada’s surrender to U.S. law enforcement authorities at an airport near El Paso, Texas.
While Los Mayos and Los Chapitos have been at war with each other for years, the main cause of their current conflict is the alleged kidnapping of El Mayo.
The US government has denied any involvement in Zambada's arrest, which alleges he was kidnapped and forced onto a US-bound plane by Guzmán Lópezone of Los Chapitos, the nickname for the sons of convicted drug dealer Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
However, López Obrador said the United States government needs to “realize” that it “cannot act like that, without taking the Mexican government into consideration.”
“In other words, there can be no cooperative relationship if unilateral actions are taken. That is unacceptable,” he said.
The president alleged that there was a deal between Guzmán López and U.S. authorities, and “as a result of that deal … the confrontation that is happening now is happening.”
He said Mexican authorities were still unaware of the details of the alleged deal, though they called for transparency from their U.S. counterparts.
Jeffrey Lichtman, Guzmán López's lawyer, said at the end of July that his client had no dealings with US authorities.
However, López Obrador said that “according to the Federal Attorney General's Office [FGR]That [U.S.] The Justice Department had talks with one of the crime groups in Sinaloa and they reached an agreement.”
“They even released or gave different status to one of the prisoners in the United States at the same time that another person was arrested. [to the U.S.],” he said.
The statement appeared to refer to reports that Ovidio Guzmán López, another member of Los Chapitos, had entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program.
Publicly available records from the US Federal Bureau of Prisons show that Ovidio was released from prison on July 23 — two days before his brother and Zambada's arrests — but US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar has said repeatedly that Ovidio is still in US custody.
On Thursday, López Obrador insinuated that Ovidio – who is arrested in Culiacán in early 2023 And extradited to the United States a year ago — received preferential treatment from US authorities because his brother facilitated Zambada's capture for them.
“That requires an explanation because we are now facing a situation of instability, confrontation in Sinaloa,” he said.
“That’s because they took that decision,” López Obrador said.
“We do not agree… because we have problems here. Of course we face them, we solve them, but in Sinaloa there was no violence like now,” he said.
“That's not it either… [as bad as] they think, that [not] “Totally out of control, no,” López Obrador said.
“… But we have to take special measures and move members of the armed forces [to Sinaloa]. And we also lost soldiers who were killed because of this special and extraordinary situation.”
AMLO: US 'operation' to seize Zambada 'totally illegal'
Later in his press conference, López Obrador was asked whether the United States “really” carried out an operation (or negotiations) to capture Zambada.
“That can’t be true because they are killing people. That is completely illegal,” he said, apparently referring to El Mayo’s claim that former mayor of Culiacán Héctor Cuen was killed in the same place he was kidnapped.
“And the agents of [U.S.] The Department of Justice is waiting Lord May,” Lopez Obrador said, seeking to provide further evidence of a previous deal with Joaquin Guzman Lopez.
He also said it was “completely unconscionable” for someone to be “kidnapped through a contract and brought to the United States.”
FGR has indicated that it intends to lay treason charges against Joaquín Guzmán López for allegedly kidnapping Zambada and handing him over to US authorities.
In his lengthy remarks on the case, López Obrador also questioned whether the United States “really” negotiated Zambada’s arrest because of its desire to stem drug trafficking, specifically the entry of the deadly synthetic opioid, fentanyl, into the United States.
“Let's see if that is it or if it is a decision taken, as usual, to [just] show that they are paying attention to the issue of fentanyl use — just for propaganda,” he said.
Relations with US 'must be good'
Although he issued strong statements against the US government for its alleged collaboration with Joaquín Guzmán López, his decision to terminate relations with the US Embassy in Mexico after Ambassador Salazar made critical remarks about Mexican government's judicial reformLópez Obrador stressed that he supports efforts to maintain good relations with Mexico's northern neighbor.
“The relationship has to be good for geopolitical reasons, because of the border — it’s 3,180 kilometers long,” he said.
“Forty million Mexicans live and work with honor in the United States. … So, we must maintain a relationship of mutual respect and good neighborliness with the United States,” López Obrador said.
“The only thing they have to understand is that we are an independent country.”
With reports from EFE And Millennium