Photo: Twitter Marcelo Ebrard C.
The Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, instructed the Mexican ambassador and consuls in the United States on Monday afternoon to undertake a broad information campaign and to defend Mexico in the face of unacceptable attacks by legislators and former officials of the Republican Party.
"We will not allow Mexico to be trampled," said Foreign Minister Ebrard to the 52 consuls gathered at the Mexican Cultural Institute.
During the meeting, Secretary Ebrard and the consuls reviewed the recent attacks by some legislators and former officials of the Republican Party, who have sought to blame Mexico for the crisis in fentanyl consumption in the United States, and who in some cases have gone so far as to propose an intervention in our country.
In a meeting held yesterday afternoon in Washington DC with the ambassador Esteban Moctezuma and the 52 consuls of Mexico in the United States, the Mexican foreign minister stated that in the fight against fentanyl, Mexico has been the main ally of the United States.
Proof of this, he pointed out, is that, so far in this six-year term, Mexico has seized a record figure of more than six tons of fentanyl, which has prevented billions of deadly doses.
The fight against fentanyl trafficking, he added, has cost hundreds of Mexican federal forces casualties.
"With this cost in human lives, how dare these gentlemen question our commitment or, worse still, call for intervention in our country?" he objected.
Thus, Ebrard asked the ambassador and consuls to hold informative meetings with the Mexican community and political actors, and to submit a weekly report on them.
Finally, at the suggestion of the consuls themselves, information materials will be distributed at the consulates' offices and in local media.
Ebrard emphasized that, beyond extreme positions, the governments of Mexico and the United States are working within the framework of the Bicentennial Understanding to prevent deaths from fentanyl use and to prevent criminal groups from accessing high-powered weapons.
He added that in April there will be a meeting in Washington between the security cabinets of both countries to identify additional steps for cooperation to combat fentanyl and arms trafficking.
He also said that Mexican security authorities have no record of fentanyl production in Mexico, but rather they consider the country to be a trafficking zone for this opioid and its precursors, which come mainly from Asia.
In this regard, Ebrard explained that the current Mexican Administration has followed a strategy based on tightening the legal and regulatory framework, expanding the mechanisms for supervision and monitoring of controlled substances or dual use, strengthening the deployment and surveillance in land and sea ports and customs and in the national territory, and expanding public health services and care for mental disorders.
Finally, he stressed that as a control measure it was decided that the ports would be managed by the Navy and the customs by the Army.
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