Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Declines Donald Trump’s Request To Start ‘War’ With Cartels

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president of Mexico, seemingly declined President Donald Trump’s offer on Tuesday to help the country “wage war” on Mexican drug cartels. The American president’s apparent offer to help by providing military forces was ostensibly rejected, according to a report from The Hill.

When asked about the offer from President Trump at a press conference Tuesday, the Mexican president, who assumed office in December last year, said, “it’s not in agreement with our convictions. The worst thing is war.”

As The Inquisitr reporter earlier Tuesday, President Trump sent a series of tweets offering to send help to combat drug cartels. The president detailed a story in which nine U.S. citizens were killed near the U.S. border in Mexico as a result of drug cartel violence. As CNN reported, a Mormon family was reportedly ambushed while they were driving, and authorities are investigating whether it was a case of mistaken identity.

“This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. We merely await a call from your great new president,” the Trump tweeted around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“You sometimes need an army to defeat an army,” the president added in another tweet.

As The Hill reported, the new Mexican president faced strong criticism following his decision to release Ovidio Guzmán, the son of infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, after a cartel killed 13 people last month in Culiacán, Mexico, a city in the northern part of the country.

López Obrador had made fighting the Mexican drug cartels a cornerstone of his campaign for president, per The Hill. Obrador had blamed Mexico’s longtime drug war on his political rival, former Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

According to a piece Sunday from The Washington Post’s “Global Opinions” section authored by León Krauze, the Central American president has reportedly faced significant criticism over his handling of the event and his administration’s response to it.

“After offering contradictory reports on the operation, López Obrador and his cabinet still have not clarified the exact circumstances in which Guzmán was freed, how the cartel negotiated his freedom or what the president himself knew,” Krauze wrote, for The Washington Post.

Krauze also criticized López Obrador’s overall policies on drugs during his tenure, which he said have not been successful. The policies, which have included an attempt to substitute poppy crops for other crops, have fallen short of bringing change to the country’s problems, Krauze said.

President Trump has not yet responded to the Mexican president’s apparent refusal to accept American assistance in combating the cartels.