New clash between the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Republican Party. Congressman Dan Crenshaw, behind the proposal to name terrorist groups and declare war on the Mexican cartels, has launched a new dart against the president after the tragedy in Lagos de Moreno, the case of the disappearance of five young people that has shocked the country in recent days. “My question to the president of Mexico is how much violence can his country endure, what is the limit?” Crenshaw questioned in a video shared Tuesday on his social media. “It is time to declare the cartels enemies of Mexico and the United States,” he added.
“It is time to end the political games and work together to combat this threat,” Crenshaw said in a direct question to López Obrador. Both have starred for months in a crossroads of accusations and reproaches regarding the security strategy of the Mexican Government. “You have said that I want to invade Mexico, but you know that is not true,” said the conservative politician, who proposed a law last November for the United States to authorize the use of military force in Mexican territory. “It’s time you let us help you,” said the Texas representative, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The proposal that the US Army fight the Mexican cartels is not new. It is an initiative that arose from the Barack Obama Administration and gained strength during the Government of Donald Trump, although it never materialized. During the fentanyl crisis, which claims tens of thousands of lives in the United States each year, the idea gained momentum again, under the premise that the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel are behind the trafficking that has oiled the epidemic due to the consumption of synthetic drugs.
Last March, Crenshaw and other members of the Republican Party echoed the murder of two Americans in the border city of Matamoros to affirm that López Obrador’s policy against organized crime has failed. The Mexican president emphasized that Mexico “is not a colony of the United States” and affirmed that the proposal is inadmissible and violates international law. He also called the politicians pushing the proposal “wimps” and “interventionists.”
Crenshaw said at the end of July, in an exclusive interview with EL PAÍS, that his proposal had been misinterpreted and that he would never promote an “invasion of Mexico.” In his social media post, the politician stressed that idea. He also repeated the formula: insist on the proposal just days after the high-profile cases that ravage the other side of the border. The five young men had disappeared since August 11, and days later a disturbing video circulated in which criminal members forced them to kill each other. The case has remained at the center of news coverage and public outrage in Mexico.
The authorities have followed with diligence to find the bodies of the boys, who were only between 19 and 22 years old. This week the discovery of several bone segments in a secured farm was announced, it was assumed that they could correspond to those of the boys, but later the Government of Jalisco confirmed that they were not related to the case.
“His crime? Refuse to work for the cartel,” Crenshaw said, accusing the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel. Mexico and the United States have presidential elections next year. Most analysts warn that the Republican Party will seek to continue capitalizing on the wave of violence in Mexico in the electoral campaign, along with migration. The Republican congressman rejected these versions and said that he does not have to appeal to a speech against migration and drug trafficking to guarantee his re-election in the Lower House. Presidential hopefuls like Trump and Gov. Ron de Santis have incorporated hardline messaging about the use of deadly force at the border, including against immigrants in transit.
“Mexico is going to be a topic throughout the process and the axis of the argument of the Republican Party,” said Marcelo Ebrard, presidential candidate for Morena and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs until last June, in an interview with this newspaper last weekend. “Whoever your candidate is, he will be anti-Mexican, in fact, he is one of the few elements that gives the party cohesion,” added Ebrard, who acknowledged that the coincidence in the electoral calendar of both countries will increase the degree of complexity in the relationship. bilateral.
“We have to act now, before more innocent people are killed. Your country is at stake,” said Crenshaw, who has shown himself willing to meet with the Mexican president to put their disagreements behind him. After months of friction with different sectors in Washington, López Obrador has avoided paying for the controversy in recent weeks. A new open wound for Mexico can reignite the controversy between the two countries.
Source: El Pais
