U.S. envoy urges Mexico to resist cartel influence
El Diario de Chihuahua reports that Ambassador Ronald Johnson urged Mexico to defend its sovereignty from both foreign interference and organized crime. Johnson cited Mexican seizures, including more than 500 tons of narcotics since Claudia Sheinbaum took office, and linked them to a reported decline in U.S. fentanyl-overdose deaths.
Mexico should defend its sovereignty from outside interference while also protecting itself from drug trafficking's influence, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson said at the fifth Binational Convention of the American Society of Mexico. According to El Diario de Chihuahua, Johnson said President Donald Trump's central message is cooperation rather than intervention and called for a Mexico free from criminal organizations and transnational cartels that terrorize and control communities.
Johnson said the security relationship matters to the United States because the countries share a border of more than 3,000 kilometers, receive about 40 million U.S. travelers in Mexico and conduct trade under the USMCA. El Diario de Chihuahua reported that he cited the previous month's car-bomb explosion in Zacatecas when discussing his view that criminal organizations may merit a terrorism designation. He also highlighted Mexican security work, including border protection and drug seizures.
Johnson said that since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, Mexico has seized more than 500 tons of illegal narcotics, including 80 tons at sea, more than two tons of fentanyl and 9.5 million fentanyl pills. He attributed a 35 percent decline in U.S. fentanyl-overdose deaths to those efforts, saying deaths had reached about 100,000 at their peak and that the reduction represented roughly 35,000 lives saved annually. Those figures and assessments are claims made by the ambassador as reported by El Diario de Chihuahua. Source: El Diario de Chihuahua.