United States Secretary of State, Anthony flashemphasized that Mexico Ha “Record sums confiscated” from fentanyl and claimed that both countries are working “very closely” to combat trafficking in this synthetic drug.
Blinken made the statements during an appearance before a Senate committee amid rising tensions between Mexico and the United States, which have accused each other of not doing enough to combat drug trafficking in recent weeks.
“We did several things to focus intensely on this issue with Mexico. We work very closely together,” said the head of US diplomacy.
The Foreign Minister reiterated that the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador “has arrested last year to dozens of Leader from organizations criminal” and has dismantled laboratories manufacturing fentanyl with the “support” of the United States.
He also stressed that Mexico had seized “record quantities” of fentanyl, although he admitted there is still one very high production of this drug that causes thousands of overdose deaths in the United States each year.
The United States Financial Intelligence Unit is also working with the Mexican company to dismantle “the economic networks” of drug trafficking, he added.
Blinken said the fight against fentanyl must be global, which is why he has proposed a coalition to the G20 to share information and protocols, including with China, on where the raw materials used by the Mexican cartels to manufacture it come from.
Tensions between the US and Mexico have increased since the killing of two Americans in the north of the Latin American country in early March.
Some voices in the Joe Biden administration have suggested that Mexico should do more to fight drug trafficking, while opposition Republican lawmakers have called for Mexican cartels to be declared terrorist organizations and for military intervention in Mexico, which the House of Representatives has ruled out.
López Obrador has vowed to defend Mexico’s sovereignty, has claimed to have seized six tons of fentanyl, has accused the United States of failing to address the issue and has even denied that this drug is consumed or manufactured in his country.
Blinken pointed out before the Senate committee this Wednesday that the consumption of fentanyl is too killing To Mexican‘ and that this is ‘a growing problem’ in the Latin American country.
The foreign minister said he had examined the possibility of declaring the cartels terrorist organizations, but he believed this would not give his government “new tools” to combat them.
Instead, he chose to invest in new detection technologies at the border, since 96 percent of fentanyl enters the United States through official ports of entry.
With information from EFE