MEXICO CITY, Oct 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said his US counterpart Donald Trump called him to express his “solidarity” following an attempt to arrest a drug kingpin’s son that prompted a wave of violence in the northwestern city of Culiacan.
Cartel gunmen surrounded about 35 police and national guards on Thursday in the capital of Sinaloa state and made them free Ovidio Guzman, one of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s dozen or so children, after his brief detention set off widespread gun battles and a jailbreak that stunned the country.
“I received a call from President Trump expressing his solidarity following the events in Culiacan. I thank you for respecting our sovereignty and your willingness to maintain a policy of being good neighbors, based on cooperation for the development and welfare of our peoples,” Lopez Obrador said on Twitter.
López Obrador’s government came under heavy domestic criticism for releasing the son after gunmen took soldiers hostage and waged open battle in the streets for hours, with cartel foot soldiers patrolling with machine guns mounted in truck beds.
Five attackers, a member of the National Guard, a civilian and an escaped prisoner died in the gun battles.
The elder Guzmán has been sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. Ovidio Guzmán was indicted in 2018 in Washington, along with a fourth brother, on charges of trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.
The government said it decided to drop the operation Thursday to avoid further loss of life. Critics say it ceded territory to a cartel.
“We are not dictators, we are not tyrants,” López Obrador said Saturday. “We will always respect the life of all human beings, and that way peace can be achieved.”
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters Saturday that López Obrador and Trump agreed by phone the two countries will work together to “freeze” the flow of weapons into Mexico.
The high caliber, military-grade weapons deployed by cartel members on Thursday are not legal for civilian use in the country and Mexican authorities believe most of them came from the U.S.
Ebrard said that he will meet with his U.S. counterparts in the coming days to advance efforts to stem the illicit entry of weapons into Mexico.
Mexican officials estimate that more than 200 civilians would have died had they not turned over Ovidio Guzmán on Thursday. The cartel enforcers had positioned themselves in front of a housing complex where wives and children of soldiers live.
“Mexico has abandoned the idea of collateral damage,” said Ebrard. — NNN-AGENCIES
