A high-ranking official of the National Border Patrol Council ripped Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Tuesday for claiming Mexico is “safer” than the United States.
“He’s just not being a serious person, that’s ridiculous,” National Border Patrol Council Vice President Jon Anfinsen told Fox News host Harris Faulkner. “You don’t have people — they’re not worried driving through the United States, worried that they’re going to get stopped at a cartel checkpoint and executed. It’s just crazy, he’s not being serious.”
“Mexico is safer than the United States. There is no issue with traveling safely through Mexico. That’s something the U.S. citizens also know, just like our fellow Mexicans that live in the U.S.,” Obrador said during a Monday press conference, CNN reported. Obrador also accused conservative politicians in the United States of waging “a campaign” against the country’s development.
Anfinsen’s comments came after Obrador reacted Monday to updated travel warnings from the State Department following the March 3 kidnapping of four Americans and the February disappearance of three women.
Mexico has been plagued by cartel violence and corruption, with violence in Tijuana getting so bad in August 2022 that the U.S. Consulate issued a shelter-in-place order. In February, former Mexican Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna was convicted by a federal court on charges surrounding importing cocaine into the United States.
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