MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Tuesday appealed to the country’s citizens not to accept gifts and presents from drug gangs for the holidays, after videos posted online showed pickup trucks handing out dozens of gifts as passers-by described the drivers as members of the Jalisco drug cartel. .
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed that some drug gangs were trying to take back such gifts – often seen years ago – to gain support from the local population.
López Obrador said in the morning press conference that residents of some communities tried to protect traffickers, stop drug seizures or oppose the establishment of National Guard bases to fight drug trafficking.
Authorities did not confirm the source of the gifts – mainly toys – in the Dec. 21 filing in a low-income neighborhood in the city of Guadalajara, capital of Jalisco state.
A convoy of trucks carrying inflatable Santa decorations and holiday lights rolled through the neighborhood, blaring “narco corrido” songs praising the Jalisco cartel and a local leader known as “RR.”
A bystander in one video is heard saying, “All the people in RR. Who says they don’t give you anything? Why doesn’t the government do the same?”
Asked about the videos on Tuesday, López Obrador acknowledged that the practice has resurfaced; in the 2010s, such cartel Christmas gift rounds were common in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. López Obrador said it was part of a strategy by criminal gangs to gain popular support.
“From the beginning of this administration, we knew, it was obvious, it was a public record, that criminal gangs rely heavily on social foundations, on people in communities,” the president said. “They use people as (human) shields.”
“Lately, some groups are trying to revive this method (of giving gifts) by getting people to support them,” López Obrador said. “When there is a cocaine seizure, communities come out and defend the traffickers and even try to kidnap members of the military and the (National) Guard to prevent the seizure of cocaine.”
Residents in three states also staged demonstrations against the construction of National Guard barracks. López Obrador attributed what he described as “three or four cases” of local opposition to cartel influence. However, in the case of the Mexico City demonstrations, residents said they felt the barracks were unnecessary, harmful to the environment, or could increase neighborhood violence.
Mexico’s biggest show of local support for criminal gangs has come for fuel theft gangs that dig into government pipelines to steal gasoline and diesel. As fuel thieves allow locals to even collect gas from illegal taps, many communities have struggled with police and army raids.
But López Obrador said his campaign against fuel theft has weakened that kind of partnership with criminals.
“There’s been this kind of support, it’s all worked because people know it’s illegal and they shouldn’t be protecting criminals,” the president said. “What I’m telling people is they shouldn’t be manipulated, they shouldn’t be protecting these gangs.”
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