The complaint was published on Tuesday, May 14th, against the Mexican government because AMLO has not approved the visas of 13 agents of the US agency.
The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has not approved the visas of 13 agents of the Anti-Drug Agency (DEA) so that they can work in Mexico, which has affected the anti-drug fight.
The complaint came to light this Tuesday, in the appearance of the head of the DEA, Anne Milgram, before the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.
Questioned on the issue by Republican Hal Rogers, chairman of the subcommittee, Milgram said that in one case, “we have been waiting eight months for a visa and we know the cost that means for us in terms of our ability to work.” This delay has complicated the work against the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) cartels.
“Every year in the United States we lose more than 100,000 Americans,” said Milgram, alluding to victims of drug overdoses. “Time matters and I couldn’t speak with enough urgency about how important it is for us to get those 13 intelligence agents and analysts into” Mexico, she added.
The official insisted: “We are waiting for those 13 visas… And unfortunately, we all know the price we pay as a country when we wait so long.”
The relationship of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador with the DEA entered into crisis after the capture in the United States, in October 2020, of General Salvador Cienfuegos, former Mexican Secretary of Defense.
Ultimately, the United States handed over Cienfuegos to Mexico in November and he ended up being acquitted. But López Obrador never forgave the DEA for a case that, he said, did not hold up against Cienfuegos.
The response was immediate: in January 2021, López Obrador approved a security reform, regulating the presence of foreign agents in Mexico and complicating the handling of confidential information.
By October of the same year, sources from Joe Biden’s US government reported that the Mexican government had frozen the issuance of visas for 24 DEA agents for months. Later, it was reported that the visas had been unblocked.
Rogers asked Milgram if she was satisfied with the Mexican government’s collaboration in the fight against drugs. “Let me tell you when I will be satisfied. I will be when there are no more American deaths from fentanyl. I think then we will all be able to say that we have achieved it.”
Milgram also said that fentanyl manufacturing in Mexico continues to be at catastrophic levels, despite agreements between the United States, Mexico, and China on the matter.
The information about the Mexican government’s delay in authorizing visas for DEA agents also comes after López Obrador furiously rejected an article published by The New York Times about DEA investigations into alleged contributions. of drug trafficking to his 2018 campaign. “With what right do they investigate a legal, legitimately constituted government of an independent country?” the president questioned.
Former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard then described the DEA as “a headache in Mexico” and did not hesitate to describe the leaks of the agency’s investigations to various media as “revenge” for the restrictions imposed in Mexico.
Source: El Universal
