AMLO reversed former US prosecutor over criticism of his security strategy: “You can't face evil with evil”

After former US Attorney General William Barr criticized President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's government for “losing control of the country” in in favor of organized crime, the Mexican president reversed the opinion of the US official by defending his strategy “hugs, not bullets” and reiterating his rejection of coercive measures to combat drug trafficking.

“The problem of insecurity and violence cannot be addressed by coercive measures alone. Violence cannot be confronted with violence. You can't face evil with evil. Evil must be confronted by doing good, I hold that position and with this policy we are getting ahead. No massacres, no hot killing, respecting human rights with hugs, not bullets,” the president said at the press conference from the National Palace.

López Obrador also took the opportunity to describe the relationship with the United States as “good” and mention that in the neighboring country to the north they have “been very respectful of our sovereignty”. He even referred to a chapter in the book published this year by the former US prosecutor entitled One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General.

“He has a chapter on the relationship with Mexico and he defends a position in a legitimate way. He says that we held a certain stance and were very zealous to defend our sovereignty, and they were very respectful. There were, and he tells it, differences due to two different policies. It simplified things a lot, but at the same time it showed that we have different positions, not only with the United States, but also with the conservative bloc of Mexico,” explained the president.

William Barr, an official during the terms of presidents George Bush and Donald Trump, said last Friday, March 18 in an interview with Fox News that the economic power of organized crime has already exceeded the Mexican government's security system.

In this regard, he expressed concern when he considered that the country's authorities could now “share sovereignty with the cartels and reach a modus vivendi with them.”

Barr recalled that for former Republican President Trump, border security was a priority, but in Joe Biden's current administration, Vice President Kamala Harris is failing in her role.

He gave as an example the episode of the so-called “Culiacanazo”, where Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzman, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and now imprisoned in the United States, was arrested and later released. “He summoned 700 paramilitaries with truck-mounted machine guns to reject law enforcement,” he stressed.

It is worth mentioning that on March 13, gunmen fired on the premises of the consulate in Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas, bordering Laredo, in Texas. The attack came after the arrest of the leader of the Northeast Cartel, Juan Gerardo Treviño “El Huevo”, who was handed over to US authorities on Tuesday.

As a result, Joe Biden's government issued a travel alert to Tamaulipas and authorized the departure of some members of its consulate in that city along with their relatives.

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