Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo responded to President-elect Trump’s menace to embargo items from neighboring international locations by blaming violence in her nation on weapons imported from the U.S. and America’s insatiable demand for medication.
Trump vowed Monday that when he takes workplace in January he’ll impose a 25% tariff on Mexican items offered within the U.S. till Mexico places an finish to migrants and medicines getting into via the 2 international locations’ shared border. His chief grievance is concerning fentanyl.
Mexico’s newly elected chief took intention at her future American counterpart throughout a Tuesday morning briefing on healthcare, which she started by studying a scathing open letter to Trump.
“Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country,” she charged. “We do not produce the weapons, we do not consume synthetic drugs.”
Mexican armed forces and prosecutors have reported the seizure of “tons” of medication and greater than 10,000 weapons in 2024. They declare to have additionally arrested almost 16,000 individuals for violence associated to drug trafficking.
“For humanitarian reasons, we have always expressed Mexico’s willingness to prevent the continuation of the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, which is, moreover, a problem of consumption and public health in the society of this country,” Pardo wrote.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, middle, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in background at proper, and different G20 leaders attend the G20 Summit on the Museum of Fashionable Artwork in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Eric Lee/The New York Occasions through AP, Pool)
She additionally took concern with Trump’s allegations Mexico isn’t working to curb unlawful immigration into the U.S.
“According to figures from your country’s Border and Customs Patrol (CBP), encounters at the border between Mexico and the United States have been reduced by 75% from December 2023 to November 2024,” the letter mentioned.
A promise to safe the USA’ borders was a key element of Trump’s reelection marketing campaign.
Pardo recommended the U.S. and Mexico “jointly arrive” at determining “another model of labor mobility that is necessary for your country” whereas additionally addressing the issues inflicting migrants to depart their homelands.
“If a percentage of what the United States allocates to war is dedicated to peacebuilding and development, the mobility of people will be fundamentally addressed,” her letter claimed.
In line with Pardo, if Trump proceeds to tax overseas imports, Mexico and different nations will reply in form and that can solely harm customers.
“President Trump, we are not going to address the migration phenomenon or drug use in the United States with threats or tariffs,”Pardo wrote.
