Fury in Mexico over Trump's 'slanderous' claim of cartel links

Source: The Guardian

Fury in Mexico over Trump’s ‘slanderous’ claim of cartel links

President Sheinbaum and politicians across the spectrum condemn accusation, which follows imposition of US tariffs

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Sun 2 Feb 2025 16.33 GMT
Last modified on Sun 2 Feb 2025 17.23 GMT

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has hit back at Donald Trump’s “slanderous” claim that her government had joined forces with drug bosses, amid anger and incredulity at the US president’s attack on the leaders of Latin America’s second biggest economy.

Trump made the claim on Saturday as he announced 25% tariffs against Mexico that the US said were a response to illegal immigration and the “intolerable alliance” between drug trafficking organisations and Mexico’s government, which had allegedly offered safe haven to “dangerous cartels”.

Trump’s decision to follow through on his tariffs threat – coupled with the dramatic accusation against Sheinbaum’s administration – drew a stinging response from Mexico’s first female president, who took power last October.

“We categorically reject the White House’s slanderous claim that the Mexico government has alliances with criminal organisations, as well as any attempt to intervene in our territory,” Sheinbaum wrote on X. “If there is anywhere that such an alliance in fact exists, it is in the United States gun factories that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/02/mexico-responds-angrily-to-trumps-claim-its-government-has-links-to-cartels