MEXICO CITY, Mexico: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Wednesday intensely rejected claims that drug traffickers helped to fund his first presidential campaign in 2006, describing the allegations as “completely false.”
Lopez Obrador also criticized US authorities for violating “political ethics” after the claims appeared in an article published by news website ProPublica that quoted US officials.
According to a report by investigative journalist Tim Golden, US narcotics agents uncovered “substantial evidence” that cocaine traffickers poured around $2 million into Lopez Obrador’s campaign.
“It’s a slander… there is no evidence” of illegal financing, Mexico’s president said at his regular morning news conference.
“I condemn the US government for allowing these immoral practices contrary to the political ethics that should prevail in all governments in the world,” he added.
According to Golden’s article, based on interviews with US and Mexican officials as well as government documents, traffickers allegedly provided funds in exchange for a promise that Lopez Obrador’s government would facilitate their operations.
The report said it was unclear whether Lopez Obrador imposed the sanctions or was even aware of the funding. He narrowly lost the election.
Similar stories were also published by the German media group Deutsche Welle and the InSight Crime think-tank.
Lopez Obrador dismissed the claims as a political attack by his opponents ahead of June’s presidential election, which he hopes his close ally Claudia Sheinbaum will win.
The Mexican leader, who enjoys public support of around 70 percent but can only serve one term, accuses Washington of failing his anti-drug strategy.
Since taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador has pursued a “hugs, not bullets” strategy to tackle violent crime at its roots by fighting poverty and inequality with social programs, not the military.
Mexico has recorded more than 420,000 murders since 2006, when the government deployed the military to fight drug trafficking, most of them by criminal gangs.
