MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 Mexico鈥檚 president suggested Thursday that talks with the U.S. government on migration and drug trafficking could suffer after media reports of a U.S. investigation into alleged drug money donations for his 2006 campaign.
President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador suggested U.S. officials should apologize for what he called baseless allegations, and said it would be hard to sit down and talk about some of the most pressing issues in bilateral relations until that happens.
鈥淚 don't accept this, what I want is for the U.S. government to take a stand,鈥 L贸pez Obrador said at his daily morning press briefing. 鈥淚f they have no proof, they have to apologize.鈥
鈥淧resident (Joe) Biden has to find out about this," L贸pez Obrador said. "How are we going to sit down at a table and talk about fighting drugs if one of their agencies is leaking information and damaging me? How are we going to talk about migration, how are we going to talk about fighting drugs or fentanyl?鈥
The Biden administration has relied for some time on Mexico's willingness to accept the return of migrants from third countries as a way of quickly returning migrants and asylum seekers at the U.S. southwest border.
It would be a political problem for Biden if Mexico refuses to continue doing so, or loosens up on its already weak efforts to control the flow of deadly opioids made in Mexico and smuggled into the United States.
L贸pez Obrador 鈥 who pointedly called 鈥渕y friend鈥 later in the briefing 鈥 did not specify who he wanted to apologize, but suggested that the U.S. State Department should say something.
鈥淒on't the state department, the justice department, have any information?鈥 he said, calling the media reports 鈥渋nterventionism鈥 in Mexico's domestic affairs.
L贸pez Obrador has denied old allegations that drug traffickers may have given about $2 million to his first, failed bid for the presidency 鈥 he lost in 2012 and finally won in 2018 鈥 and called the reports a U.S. attack on his government and his Morena party before .
, the presidential candidate for L贸pez Obrador鈥檚 Morena party, holds a commanding lead in opinion polls for the June 2 election. But Mexico鈥檚 continued high rates of violence 鈥 and Sheinbaum鈥檚 pledge to continue L贸pez Obrador鈥檚 policy of not confronting drug cartels 鈥 are one of the governing party鈥檚 most vulnerable flanks.
According to reports by ProPublica, Insight Crime and Germany鈥檚 Deutsche Welle, in 2010 the DEA investigated claims by a cooperating drug trafficker and a former campaign adviser that leaders of the Beltr谩n Leyva drug cartel gave the money to close confidants of L贸pez Obrador in 2006.
But a wiretap of a conversation between the DEA informants and one of L贸pez Obrador鈥檚 top aides didn鈥檛 really confirm the donations, and U.S. officials later ordered the politically sensitive case closed.
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, feared that the latest dispute could damage U.S.-Mexico cooperation on fighting drug trafficking, in much the same way as the 2020 U.S. , Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos.
L贸pez Obrador has long complained about the actions of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Mexico, and following the arrest of Cienfuegos, he imposed restrictions on U.S. agents in Mexico.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just terrible, it鈥檚 going to mean more drugs heading to the United States and more violence in Mexico,鈥 Vigil said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 worse than when Cienfuegos was arrested.鈥
鈥淭his is a direct attack against him. Secondly, he views it as an impact on the presidential campaign or the presidential elections that are coming up,鈥 Vigil said. 鈥淣ow, if we thought the relations with Mexico were bad, they are going to go from worse to almost nonexistent.鈥
L贸pez Obrador has long been angry at perceived American interference. He claimed that the U.S. arrest of Cienfuegos, the former defense secretary, was part of a DEA plot to weaken Mexico鈥檚 armed forces and allow U.S. agents free reign in Mexico.
Cienfuegos was arrested at a Los Angeles airport in 2020, accused of participating in an international drug trafficking and money laundering network.
Mexico demanded Cienfuegos鈥 release, reportedly threatening to expel U.S. agents unless he was returned. The United States . Mexico quickly absolved Cienfuegos of any wrongdoing and later held up visas for U.S. agents and restricted the work they could do in Mexico.
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