Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, claimed during an interview that aired on Sunday that he has ended corruption in Mexico and that the hundreds of political assassinations that are carried out every year in his country are not a threat to democracy.
AMLO made the claims during a “60 Minutes” interview about the crisis on the U.S. southern border and about the Mexican drug cartels.
The left-wing news program noted that AMLO takes a “bare knuckle brawls with the press” which it said was in “sharp contrast to the softer approach he’s taken with the drug cartels.”
AMLO claimed that his “hugs not bullets” method for dealing with the cartels has worked out “very well,” even though violence remains high and the cartels have grown in size.
When asked about the more than 30,000 murders that happen in Mexico every year, AMLO claimed that the Mexican government prosecuted “all” of the cases, even though only around 5% are actually prosecuted.
AMLO deflected blame for the role his country has played in the fentanyl crisis in the United States since nearly all of the illicit fentanyl that ends up killing Americans is manufactured by cartels in Mexico.
“Fentanyl is produced in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico,” he claimed, ignoring the fact that the illicit fentanyl used in street drugs comes from his country. “And the chemical precursors come from Asia. You know why we don’t have the drug consumption that you have in the United States? Because we have customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family.”
When asked if he has “completely” eliminated “corruption” in Mexico, AMLO claimed: “Yes, basically, because corruption in Mexico started from the top down.”
“60 Minutes” noted that independent organizations have found there has been “no improvement in the corruption problems that have plagued Mexico for decades” under AMLO.
When asked about the 355 government officials and political candidates who were murdered last year in his country, he downplayed the matter, saying there were only “some specific instances.”
He said that the assassinations posed no threat to democracy.
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