A round of indictments against a major Mexican fentanyl trafficking ring last week presents an opportunity to hobble the multinational drug enterprise killing people on both sides of the border — but only if leaders in the United States and Mexico can stop sniping at each other and overcome a rift between them.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, announcing the indictments against Sinaloa cartel leaders and other alleged drug traffickers Friday, called it “the largest, most violent and prolific fentanyl traffic operation in the world.” But it didn’t take long for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to question the investigation that led to the charges against Los Chapitos, four sons of the infamous drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo and believed to have handed leadership of the Sinaloa cartel to his sons. López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, on Monday accused the U.S. government of spying and violating Mexico’s national sovereignty.
Such discord is, unfortunately, not unexpected considering that leaders in both countries have been engaging in a war of words for weeks since four U.S. citizens were attacked by a drug gang while visiting the Mexican border city of Matamoros in early March. Two died in gunfire and two others were kidnapped, and released a few days later. The kidnappings prompted Republicans to call for designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and for the U.S. to invade Mexico to battle these cartels. Though the frustration is understandable, such vigilante-style fantasies are antithetical to a good relationship between two countries.
