Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reaffirmed his administration is taking measures to slow inflation on Wednesday, one day after he urged citizens not to fall back into a revived tradition of accepting drug cartel gifts and money during the lean Christmas season.
“We have to take care of that,” he said, then assured the public, “We are already working,” Mexico News Daily (MND) reported.
On Tuesday, Mexican media asked López Obrador about a video circulated showing an alleged local leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) delivering gifts to residents in El Retiro on Christmas Eve.
Ricardo Ruiz, the alleged gang leader, is known as “RR” or “El Tripa,” according to MND.
CJNG last made U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) news in November, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington announced the sentencing and imprisonment of two of the cartel’s drug runners.
In September, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced the results of its enforcement surge, called the “One Pill Can Kill” initiative, which aimed to cut down on the amount of fentanyl on the market, The Dallas Express reported.
From May 23 to September 8, investigators looked into 390 cases. Of those, 51 were linked to overdose poisonings, and 35 were directly related to the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or both. These Mexican cartels supply most of the fentanyl sold in the U.S.
Cartel-supplied fentanyl has caused a shocking increase in the number of overdose deaths in Texas — 89% higher in 2021 than in 2020 — and Dallas has not been untouched. Drug deaths and drug offenses have dovetailed with a wave of rising crime in Dallas, where residents continue to express concerns that the city’s political leaders are failing to maintain order and public safety.
In Mexico, the relationship between citizens, public authorities, and the drug trade is more complicated.
“They are using people,” López Obrador said when asked about the cartel Christmas gifts.
“I’ll take the opportunity to say it so that people don’t allow themselves to be manipulated,” López Obrador continued. “Even if [the cartel members] give them groceries, that is not in good faith; it is to use the population as a shield.”
López Obrador said on Wednesday that it was not true that this Christmas is the most expensive so far in this century. He mentioned as an example that fish and poultry prices are fair, even amid widespread inflation.
“You would only have to see the prices of chicken and turkey, from tuna — which is the cheapest — to cod, romerito, and everything, and it is not as they say,” he claimed, per MND.
In Mexico, cartels have been giving gifts for a long time, according to MND. The CJNG has reportedly given out food and toys in the past, and the Sinaloa Cartel has reportedly given money to local social services.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, other criminal groups reportedly used gift-giving to ingratiate themselves with the public, though López Obrador claims these manipulative actions have decreased since he took office in 2018.
Now, López Obrador says the problem is resurfacing because drug cartels want people to protest the National Guard, which the president has backed as the country’s leading defense against drug cartels.
