‘That is False’: Mexico’s President Hits Back at U.S. Claims That Drug Cartels Control Parts of Mexico

Mexico’s president is adamantly denying U.S. assertions that dangerous drug cartels control parts of Mexico.

“That is false,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday in response to comments by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Blinken made the comments in response to a question from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) during a hearing this week.

“Are the drug cartels in control of parts of Mexico, not the government of Mexico?” Graham asked.

“I think that’s fair to say, yes,” Blinken responded.

Blinken’s assertion comes in the wake of the fatal kidnapping of four so-called medical tourists who had crossed from Texas into Matamoros in Northern Mexico.

Two of the American citizens were killed after members of the Scorpions Group, an offshoot of the Gulf Cartel, fired on the party. One of those hit was reportedly in the country to obtain affordable plastic surgery. Within days, cartel leadership had issued a written apology and turned over five men to Mexican authorities for prosecution.

The Associated Press published part of the apology letter:

“We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible for the events”, the letter reads, saying the men had gone rogue, acting “under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” and broke the rules of “protecting the lives of the innocent.”

National Guard troops and Army special forces have since ramped up patrols in the areas of narco activity, according to the AP.

Meanwhile, President Lopez Obrador said Mexican authorities had a firm presence in all territories.

“There is no place in the country that does not have the presence of authorities,” Lopez Obrador told reporters..