The survey of 1,000 Mexicans found that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO — who has touted a less confrontational approach to the issue of cartels and other gangs — had an approval rating of 58.7 percent, down from 68.7 percent in late August.

The decrease could be related to criticism of Obrador after a two major incidents within the past month, according to Reuters.

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Last month, security forces captured, then released the son of convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman following an attack by cartel gunman who engulfed security forces and briefly took control of the northern Mexico city of Culiacan. Then last week, suspected cartel gunman also killed nine U.S. citizens, including three women and six children in northern Mexico, prompting criticism of the government by U.S. lawmakers and discussion of whether the U.S. should join Mexico in fighting the cartels.

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“It was lamentable, painful because children died,” AMLO said at the time.

Two Members of the Infanteria de Marina, Mexico’s equivalent of the Marine Corps in Matamoros.

“If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” President Trump tweeted on Nov. 5. “The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!”

The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, said on Thursday that drug cartels had formed a type of “parallel government.”

“It can’t be that the territory where they have this kind of power continues to expand across the country,” Landau said during an event in the northern city of Monterrey. “The future of Mexico is so important that if we don’t fight this now, it’s going to get much worse,” he added.

More than 200,000 people have died in relation to gang-related violence in Mexico over the past decade, according to Reuters.

Source – https://www.foxnews.com/

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In the US, critics of the president began to answer his triumphalism over the deal. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Trump had “undermined America’s pre-eminent leadership role in the world by recklessly threatening” Mexico.

“Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy,” she said.

The New York Times reported that key concessions from Mexico on immigration had in fact been agreed for months.

Late on Friday, Trump announced that the US and Mexico had struck an accord to avert a tariff war. Under the deal, Mexico agreed to expand a contentious asylum program, known as Remain in Mexico, that critics say puts migrants in danger from criminal cartels. The government of Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also committed to deploying security forces to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.

Trump had threatened to slap escalating tariffs of 5% on all Mexican goods from Monday if López Obrador did not do more to tighten his country’s borders.

“My reaction is it seems that hostage-taking works,” Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO from 2005 to 2013, told Reuters, saying Trump’s actions went against the spirit of diplomacy.

“If there’s a rule of law, it’s because people believe it’s better than the law of the jungle. And many people don’t like the law of the jungle because some are strong, some are weak, and they don’t want the strong to always step on the weak.”

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment, although Trump had spent the day trumpeting his victory on Twitter.

In the morning, he claimed there had been “much false reporting” of his deal “by the fake and corrupt news media, such as Comcast/NBC, CNN, New York Times and Washington Post”.

Source: TheGuardian

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