AMLO’s strategy of “hugs, not bullets” did not work, according to Salazar

Arturo Sánchez Jiménez

La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, November 14, 2024, p. 4

The United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, stated yesterday that the security strategy of the government of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, focused on the principle of hugs, not bulletsand that the government of Mexico closed the doors to coordination bilateral on the matter after the arrests of Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, and Ismael May Zambada.

In his first conference after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections, which implies the end of his mission in the country, he said that the national government denies that The reality is that the people of Mexico do not live in security.

The Democratic diplomat declared at his official residence in Mexico City that security It is the most important thing, the hinge of any democracyand that on this issue Mexico has a very serious problem. Talking about there being no problem, blaming others, the United States, as is done very obviously, is not what is required to achieve security..

After criticizing López Obrador’s strategy of hugs, not bulletsand affirm that it didn’t workadmitted the value of the preventive component of said policy and stressed that he hopes that the security plans of the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum will be successful, whom he asked to increase spending on the matter, as he said that the republican austerity promoted by her and López Obrador results in a lack of investment that can worsen the situation.

After rejecting for several months that there was a pause in bilateral relations, as López Obrador decreed in August after Salazar’s statements against the judicial reform, which were described as interventionist by the then president, the ambassador assured that The pause did not come because of the comment about the Judiciary.

According to the diplomat, tensions in cooperation began like in February of this year, and I don’t really understand why. He noted that the pause began after Guzmán’s arrest in January, and that after the capture of The May, in july, The doors were completely closed by the Mexican government, never by the United States..

He explained that López Obrador closed himself to cooperation and that for ideological reasons He rejected $32 million in security funding offered by Washington.

If the security of Mexico and the people is to be achieved, there must be joint security as partners, which has been our paradigm since I arrived.he stated. That coordination has failed in the last year largely because the previous president did not want to receive support from the United States..