US lawmakers: López Obrador committed to engage with China on fentanyl

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told U.S. lawmakers last weekend that he would personally work with China to quell transpacific shipments of fentanyl precursors that are processed into the deadly drug in Mexico. Then he said

The commitment came at a long conference in Mexico City over the weekend, where Lopez Obrador discussed a range of issues with a bipartisan group of eight senators and four congressmen.

Rep. Tony Gonzalez (Texas Republican) told The Hill:

“As such, it acknowledges the fact that China is sending these things primarily through Manzanillo and some ports on the Mexican side.”

Mexican officials said the talks were respectful and constructive, but did not confirm specific allegations.

Lopez Obrador Tweeted Sunday night “Some topics were treated with mutual respect and for the benefit of our people.”

His comments to lawmakers come after weeks of cross-border controversy over issues related to the fentanyl trade, including a Republican proposal to classify Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

That proposal provoked the famously hot-tempered Lopez Obrador to begin a correspondence with Republican lawmakers such as Senator Lindsay Graham (SC), a major supporter of the terrorist designation.

But beyond inflammatory rhetoric aimed at the public, Lopez Obrador quietly meets with US lawmakers for policy discussions.

He last met with a bipartisan delegation on 20 February and held larger meetings over the weekend.

This weekend’s delegation includes Senator John Cornyn (Republican, Texas), Chris Coons (Democrat, Democrat), Jerry Moran (Republican, Kansas), Mike Lee (Republican, Utah), and Chris Murphy (Democrat, Connecticut). State), Sherry Moore Capito (RW.Va.), Kirsten Cinema (I-Arizona), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Henry Cuella (D-Texas), Gonzalez, Veronica Escobar (Democrat, Texas), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.).

Topics ranging from energy policy to cross-border trade to agricultural policy were discussed, but two lawmakers who spoke to The Hill were particularly impressed by the Mexican president’s quick promise to work with China on fentanyl. received.

“For him to say, ‘I’m officially asking China to stop sending fentanyl to China’ — we’re talking about precursors, so he said about sending fentanyl to Mexico. “We all kind of looked at each other, ambassadors,” Queller said.

“Then we talked and said, ‘Hey, that’s very important.'”

The pledge to stop Lopez Obrador’s precursors is seen as an implicit recognition that clandestine laboratories run by drug cartels play a key role in the production of fentanyl, which is fueling the opioid crisis in American society. was

“He has an army and other people there, [talked about] How they did after those labs. So we talked a lot about fentanyl.

“Then he turned around and said very specifically, ‘We are going to talk to China about the precursors that will be introduced to the United States.'”

Lopez Obrador’s official position was that no such laboratory existed on Mexican territory, so that recognition is important.

“National security officials have no record of manufacturing fentanyl in Mexico, but view our country as a traffic zone for opioids and their precursors, which primarily come from Asia,” Mexico’s foreign ministry said last week. I read the press release.

Refusal to publicly acknowledge the existence of drug laboratories, even though they are independently documented and Mexican security agencies expend significant resources to combat them, is a serious threat to the United States. It could be part of the internal political environment that rewards Lopez Obrador for outbursts of conflict.

These flourishes, and López Obrador’s tendency to filibuster potentially confrontational events, were at the center of members’ concerns ahead of the meeting.

“I wasn’t skeptical, but I wasn’t sure how valuable the meeting would be,” Gonzalez said.

“And in the end we had four hours of discussion, then an hour and a half of lunch. But they didn’t hesitate to do anything, it was a dialogue,” he added.