The United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, showed this Tuesday his “surprise” at the request for explanations from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to the Government in Washington regarding the capture of drug trafficker Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, something which he considered should be “celebrated” as a success by both countries.
“I am so surprised that one cannot say victory for the people of Mexico, victory for the United States, the result of the work we have carried out in the last three years,” Salazar responded during a press conference at the new American embassy, after be asked about the information demands issued by the FGR in the arrest of the drug trafficker.
Salazar spoke hours after prosecutor Alejandro Gertz intervened in President Claudia Sheinbaum’s usual morning conference to request information from the US about the “kidnapping” of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, which occurred on July 25.
“The Government of the United States has informed us of one part but another part is missing that is fundamental. That person who was kidnapped in Culiacán arrived by plane to a border city in the United States,” said Gertz.
Read: FGR demands explanations from the US for the ‘kidnapping’ of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada
The attorney general stressed that “the entry of any plane and any person is regulated in accordance with North American law and the vehicle, which in this case is the plane that had its cloned license plates, must be identified and the pilot must be identified fundamentally. ”.
Salazar flatly rejected that any security body or US authority was involved in the arrest of the criminal, who was taken by plane to northern territory, supposedly kidnapped by ‘Chapo’ Guzmán’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López.
“No police operation was carried out in Mexico, it was not our plane, nor our pilot, nor our people. The pilot was not a contractor, nor a servant of the United States Government, nor a US citizen,” the ambassador stressed.
To demonstrate that there was no lack of communication on the matter, Salazar read and displayed the letters sent by the US prosecutor, Merrick Garland, to Gertz, his Mexican counterpart, and by the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to former Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, in which both were informed about the progress of the investigation and congratulated themselves on the success of the operation carried out.
Shared responsibility
The diplomat also referred to the situation of violence generated in Sinaloa as a result of the arrest of ‘El Mayo’, where two factions of the Sinaloan cartel: the ‘Chapitos’ (sons of Guzmán Loera) on the one hand and those loyal to Zambada on the other another, they have been engaged in a fierce and bloody fight since August that already has hundreds of deaths.
“We regret the violence, the death of each person, the hundreds who have died both in Sinaloa and Father Marcelo, who was murdered a few days ago in Chiapas, the responsibility lies with society, with the governments as a whole,” said the American ambassador.
For Salazar, saying that there is no problem or blaming it on a third party “is not right”, since security belongs to both governments. Even so, the American wanted to support Sheinbaum’s security strategy.
“Recognize President Claudia Sheinbaum for what she and her Secretary of Security (Omar García Harfuch) and her security team are doing,” declared the ambassador.
Read: Sedena affirms that the Sinaloa Cartel is more violent after the arrest of ‘Chapitos’ and ‘El Mayo’
Finally, Salazar agreed with what Sheinbaum said in the morning about his axes for security: attention to the causes, economic and social development, and an effective police and judicial system.
With information from EFE
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