Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blames America’s rampant fentanyl crisis on a “lack of love.”
During a news conference, Lopez Obrador claimed the deadly China-produced drug is taking over hundreds of thousands of American households because parents don’t hug their children enough.
“There’s lack disintegration of families; there is a lot of individualism, there is a lack of love, of brotherhood, of hugs and embraces,” Lopez Obrador said. “That is why they (U.S. officials) should be dedicating funds to address the causes.”
Last year, over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder was found in the U.S., taking the lives of 700,000 Americans.
The president repeatedly said that people in his country don’t consume the drug, attributing it to Mexico’s close-knit family values. He also called U.S. drug policies a failure.
However, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), “Mexico and China are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States.”
Experts say that the Mexican cartels make so much money selling the drug in the U.S. that it is unnecessary to target sales to their home country.
Customs Border and Protection said it had stopped a train from Mexico heading to Arizona filled with over 700,000 fentanyl pills.
Lopez Obrador’s comments come after he threatened Republicans they won’t see a single vote from Mexican or Hispanic voters living in the U.S. after several GOP lawmakers vowed to take down the country’s dangerous drug cartels.
“We are going to initiate an information campaign [aimed at] Mexicans who live and work in the United States, and all Hispanics to inform them about what we are doing in Mexico and how this initiative from the Republicans, besides being irresponsible, is an offense against the people on Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said. “If they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propagandist, electioneering, and (dirty) political purposes, we are going to call for them not to vote for that party (due to its being) interventionist, inhumane, hypocritical, and corrupt.”