Mexico’s López Obrador criticizes US offensive against the cartels: ‘It violates the sovereignty of other nations’

Former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) still has opinions despite his retirement from politics, a year after handing over power to Claudia Sheinbaum, his successor. The founder of Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, has reappeared in the public eye for the launch of his new book, Grandeza (Planeta, 2025), which is primarily an extensive diatribe against the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, a historical process from which he salvages few, if any, positive aspects. The book also includes some contemporary reflections on the politics of Mexico and Washington, especially regarding the drug trafficking problem and the fentanyl addiction crisis in the United States. López Obrador defends ancestral values that, he says, keep Mexicans away from drugs, an argument he then uses to contrast with the U.S., where, he maintains, there is a devotion to material things and a spiritual detachment, and where governments have abandoned young people.

Instead of addressing the root causes of the problem, López Obrador argues, Washington has opted for a punitive policy to confront the drug issue, seasoned with a touch of racism and xenophobia. The former president doesn’t directly mention Donald Trump, but he does allude to a couple of the Republican politician’s decisions, such as classifying drug cartels as transnational terrorist organizations. This designation paved the way for Washington’s regional offensive against several Latin American countries — based on the supposed fight against drug trafficking — which has threatened their sovereignty. “Despite the ineffectiveness of this way of thinking and acting, the government and the ruling class of that country [the U.S.] have convinced a large segment of its population that the problem comes from abroad, that the bad guys are the drug-trafficking terrorists from Mexico and other countries, even migrants,” López Obrador points out. “They intend to solve the problem with coercive measures or with the so-called ‘wars on crime,’ thus violating the sovereignty of other nations.”

A year has passed since the leftist former president withdrew from public life after Sheinbaum’s victory at the polls. He stated at the time that he was retiring to avoid overshadowing his successor. However, now, with the launch of his book, he has returned to the spotlight, primarily after declaring that he would return to politics if he perceived threats to democracy or Mexico’s sovereignty. Trump has hinted at his temptation to cross those lines, in contrast to Sheinbaum’s repeated stance that Mexico must resolve its own problems internally. López Obrador, echoing the president, asserts that the U.S., instead of implementing raids and mass deportations, or militarizing the border, should look inward and address the “social crisis of the loss of values within families,” with a particular emphasis on young people.

López Obrador argues that if American society does not reclaim “the cultural, moral, and spiritual values of its ancestors” — which have been replaced by “material gratification” — addressing the addiction crisis will be an uphill battle. The former president criticizes U.S. state governments that have legalized marijuana, opening the door “to the use of other, more lethal drugs.” “All of this, instead of providing young people with education, work, sports, and, above all, with love. Or do they seriously think that if fentanyl disappears, the problem will be over?” he asks.

López Obrador criticizes the “immobility or indolence” of governments and the hypocrisy or “pretense” of various actors who, for profit, allow the drug trade and large-scale violence to continue in the United States: pharmaceutical laboratories, manufacturers of chemical precursors, “drug traffickers who supply wholesalers in the United States,” domestic distributors, corrupt officials, politicians, parties, “banking and financial institutions that launder astronomical sums from drug trafficking,” arms manufacturers and sellers, private security consultants... “Or is it simply that fanaticism for the use of force and the desire for domination by the powerful nation prevail over common sense?” he asks.

Showdown with Trump

López Obrador shared an anecdote that illustrates his relationship with Trump, with whom he had to conduct arduous negotiations during the Republican’s first term as U.S. president (2017-2021). For example, there were tensions surrounding the wall Trump wanted to build on the border between the two countries. This was one of the Republican’s main campaign promises in his reelection bid, which he ultimately lost (Democrat Joe Biden governed for the following four years, before Trump’s return to the White House in 2025).

Trump not only assured his supporters that he would build a reinforced wall along the 1,954 miles of the porous border, but that he would force Mexico to pay for it. López Obrador tried to avoid directly confronting his American counterpart on this issue. The former president recounts that, after the Covid-19 pandemic had already erupted, he had a call with Trump in which he proposed reducing the fees migrants pay for sending remittances to their families in Mexico. The Republican president reacted with a dismissive attitude, López Obrador says. “I hadn’t even finished making the suggestion when he began vehemently expressing his refusal. The translator managed to tell me that, on the contrary, he wanted to increase the fees on remittances to finance the wall: that’s one of the few good things about not understanding English, because the translation time allows one small, but important, moments for reflection,” he explains.

The former president recounts how he maneuvered to appease Trump. Days earlier, he says, then-secretary of defense Luis Cresencio Sandoval had informed him “in detail, even with video footage,” of the discovery of seven tunnels used by migrants to cross the border. One of these passageways “started in Tijuana, passed under the U.S. customs facility, and reached almost to San Diego, California.” López Obrador says: “That allowed me to respond to President Trump that the wall served for publicity or political campaigning, but not to stop the arrival of migrants.” He sent Trump the videos of the tunnels taken by the Mexican army. “After my careful response, a silence ensued, broken only by a hearty laugh from that tough, but not foolish, man. The important thing is that we never discussed the famous wall again, neither publicly nor privately,” he says.

López Obrador has long been a critic of Washington’s punitive migration policies. When he governed Mexico, he managed to include Biden in an investment program aimed at Latin American countries that typically send migrants abroad due to a lack of opportunities. This collaboration has stalled again under Trump. “Obviously, addressing these root causes would not only require allocating a small portion of the vast amount the United States spends on weaponry to this noble, humane, and effective task, but it also clashes with and contradicts its conservative and overbearing mentality, according to which problems stemming from socioeconomic circumstances can and should be resolved through the use of force,” he emphasizes.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition