Pre-Election Reports Raise Concerns of Cartel-Influenced Corruption in López Obrador’s Circle
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Officials from the Justice Department and the Biden administration have played down a report suggesting that US law enforcement spent years investigating allegations that allies of Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, received millions of dollars from drug cartels after he assumed office.
President López Obrador, who denied the report, responded by disclosing the contact details of Natalie Kitroeff, the journalist from the New York Times who reported on the matter. This included her telephone number, prompting Mexico’s freedom of information body (INAI) to announce an immediate investigation into the disclosure.
The incident occurred during an event where the president referred to an investigation by the international newspaper and publicly read the correspondent’s telephone number, as stated in an INAI statement.
The reports come ahead of June’s national elections in Mexico, in which opposition groups have latched on to signs of cartel-influenced corruption in López Obrador’s circle. There has been increasing domestic US pressure on the Biden administration to curb illegal Mexico-US immigration, often controlled by cartel-affiliated smugglers, and the importation of deadly cartel-manufactured fentanyl.
According to Reporters Without Borders, 46 journalists have been killed in Mexico during López Obrador’s administration. “Mexico remains one of the world’s most dangerous and deadly countries for journalists,” the organization says. “President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in power since 2018, has not yet carried out the reforms and measures needed to stop the spiral of violence against the press.”
After revealing the journalist’s details and reading out a letter from editors for comment on the allegations, López Obrador dared the Biden administration to support to or deny the existence of the investigations. “This is interesting because the government of the United States is now going to have to respond,” he said, according to the Hill.
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