Mexican president downplays Trump’s claim that drug cartels run Mexico
Mexico City: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum downplayed the latest claim by US President Donald Trump, who said at the G7 summit that drug cartels are totally running Mexico and she is “a very scared woman.”
At her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Sheinbaum avoided engaging in polemics regarding Trump’s comments made at the gathering in the French resort town of Evian-les-Bains on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
She dismissed the remark as nothing new, noting that “he has said it before” and “President Trump has his own way of communicating; we shouldn’t get hung up on every statement.”
Trump “is not well-informed,” she said, while defending her government’s crime-fighting strategy and the commitment of her security cabinet.
Sheinbaum went on to cite official figures showing a decline in intentional homicides and a decrease in other indicators of violence.
She also rejected any measures that could jeopardise Mexico’s sovereignty.
During his speech, Trump asserted that the smuggling of drugs by water had seen more than a 90 percent decrease, and that the main focus now would be the drugs entering the US by land.
“They come through Mexico,” he said. “Mexico has lost control of their country. The cartels control Mexico, and it’s sad.”
Trump said that he considers Sheinbaum a good woman but a scared woman and that the cartels were “totally running Mexico.”
The comments come at a time of rising tensions between the US and Mexico as Sheinbaum has been working to protect several of her country’s top politicians who are under US indictments and others under investigation for their alleged ties to drug cartels.
