Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called Monday on the United States to halt the flow of weapons to her country’s drug cartels, after President Donald Trump criticized her record on fighting the groups.
Trump on Saturday singled out Mexico for criticism at a meeting with leaders of allied Latin American nations to discuss fighting the “cancer” of drug cartels.
He told the assembled group — mostly right-wing or hard-right figures — at his Florida golf club that “cartels are running Mexico” and were “getting worse.”
“We can’t have that,” he declared at the launch of a 17-nation “counter cartel” coalition and offered to use US missiles, vowing to “eradicate them (Mexican cartels).”
Sheinbaum on Monday put the ball firmly back in Washington’s court.
“If the flow of illegal weapons from the United States into Mexico is stopped, these groups won’t have access to the high-powered weapons they need to carry out their criminal activities,” the leftist leader said.
She claimed that 75 percent of the cartels’ weapons came from Mexico’s northern neighbor.
Under pressure from Trump to halt the flow of drugs into the United States, Sheinbaum has taken steps to up Mexico’s fight against organized crime.
Last month, the army shot dead one of Mexico and the United States most-wanted drug traffickers, Nemesio Oseguera, head of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
While accepting to share intelligence with the United States, Sheinbaum has made clear she draws a line at US military intervention against the cartels.
“Operations in Mexico are carried out by the armed forces, the Ministry of security, the National Guard, state police forces, and prosecutors,” she insisted on Monday.
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