Jorge Antonio Rocha
12 May 2023•Update: 12 May 2023
MEXICO CITY
Following Sen. John Kennedy's remarks against Mexico and a demand to deploy military troops in Mexican territory, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Latin American and US citizens on Friday not to vote for the Republican senator and like-minded legislators at upcoming elections.
At a Wednesday hearing in the US Senate, the Louisiana senator called for stronger action against fentanyl traffickers in Mexico.
During a hearing with the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, Anne Milgram, Kennedy suggested that the agency and President Joe Biden should offer a "deal he can't refuse" to Lopez Obrador to accept US troops in Mexico.
He also claimed Mexican population has benefited from the US.
"Without the people of America, Mexico, figuratively speaking, would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an outback," said Kennedy.
As a response, the Mexican government slammed the senator's comments, with Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard calling out Kennedy for misleading the US people for political gains: "His strategy is racist and false against our country (...) he is a persona non grata in Mexico and is also a liar."
"To tell Senator Kennedy that he is a profoundly ignorant man, Mexico is the country of all the countries in the world that has contributed the most to prevent the arrival of fentanyl pills to the United States.
"It is a fact that has cost or has cost us the lives of many people, officers of different institutions, and citizens. As far as we can see, he does not know it or pretends not to know it," said Ebrard.
The Mexican leader called US citizens not to vote for candidates like Kennedy.
"Mexican paisanos, Latin American paisanos, Hispanics and also to our American friends that at the time of voting, do not vote for candidates like this Senator Kennedy," said Lopez Obrador.
Lopez Obrador had warned US lawmakers to refrain from issuing comments that belittled Mexican sovereignty. In March, the Mexican government clapped back at Republican congressman Lindsay Graham for issuing similar remarks.
"Whoever has a migrant grandfather, a migrant father, or whoever has arrived in the US as a migrant cannot support these attitudes. Remember what Rubén Blades' song says, 'he who does not love his country does not love his father, he who does not respect his country does not respect his mother,'" added the president.
