Washington, (EFE) .- President Donald Trump said that drug trafficking cartels have a “strong control” on Mexico and said that this is something that should not be “allowed.”
Trump made these statements in the White House during the signing of a law approved by broad consensus between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, which hardens prison sentences for the distribution of fentanyl and its derivatives in US territory.
“Today we give another defeat to the wild drug traffickers, criminals and the cartels, which dominate Mexico. I try to be kind, but have a strong control over Mexico,” Trump said.
“We must do something about that, we cannot afford it. The Mexican authorities are petrified, they fear going to work because the cartels have control over politicians and elected positions,” Trump added, who when he came to power declared the main Mexican cartels as terrorist groups.
These comments occur after the recent confrontation between President Claudia Sheinbaum and Ovidio Guzmán’s lawyer, who accused the president of acting as “the public relations arm of a drug trafficker organization.”
Sheinbaum described the lawyer’s statements, Jeffrey Lichtman, as “disrespectful” towards the presidential investiture and announced a defamation lawsuit.
Ask China to the death penalty for traffickers
In the same event, Trump asked China to begin to impose the death penalty for those responsible for traffic fentanyl, a drug that has generated a serious health crisis in the United States.
“I think we are going to get China to impose the death penalty to those who manufacture this fentanyl and send it to our country,” Trump said.
“I think that will happen soon,” he added, surrounded by people who held portraits of their relatives killed by overdose of this substance.
Lee: EU presses Mexico to process politicians with cartels ties
Trump has made fentanyl fight one of his great flags and has imposed tariffs both to China and his neighbors, Mexico and Canada, who is responsible for the arrival of this drug to US territory.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid with a power 100 times greater than morphine and fifty times greater than heroin, which is used for medical purposes but is highly addictive and can be lethal even in very small doses.
In recent years, Mexican cartels have resorted to chemical precursors from China to manufacture fentanyl illegally in clandestine laboratories and traffic it to the United States, where there is a serious crisis of addictions.
In 2024, during the last year of Joe Biden’s mandate, 80,400 overdose deaths were recorded in the United States, which represented a 27% reduction compared to the previous year and the lowest level since 2019.
Despite this decrease, fentanyl, which is usually mixed with other drugs such as cocaine, remains responsible for 60% of overdose deaths.
The opioid epidemic in the United States has its origins in the 1990s, when pharmacists began to promote massively prescription analgesics, minimizing their addiction risks.
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