Reports: Mexico’s President Accepted Bribes From Drug Cartels
A series of investigative reports published by ProPublica, InSight Crime and Deutsche Welle on January 30 exposed Mexico’s president for accepting bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel in 2006.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denies the allegations. But journalists Anabel Hernández and Tim Golden claim that major cocaine traffickers funneled some $2 million into López Obrador’s first presidential campaign in return for his administration facilitating the traffickers’ criminal operations.
It’s possible a campaign aide could have accepted the money without López Obrador knowing, but the president has been more lenient with drug trafficking than his predecessors.
Facilitation: During his 2018 presidential campaign, López Obrador promised to tackle cartel violence by rewriting the rules of the drug war and granting amnesty to drug traffickers. His strategy was nicknamed “Hugs not Bullets.”
As a result, Mexico’s homicide rate has come down: Fewer people die fighting drug cartels when the government stops fighting drug cartels. Yet cartel bosses still control half the country, and they are expanding their influence now that they have friends in government.
Security threat: With America’s southern border wide open, these drug trafficking networks are spilling into the United States.
In one Bible prophecy, God likens the U.S. to a hedged vineyard protected on all sides (Isaiah 5:1-7). Because of the sins of the people, God warns He will tear down this hedge.
The late Herbert W. Armstrong’s Plain Truth magazine noted that the first breach in America’s hedge occurred in 1959 when Communist revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro overran Cuba. Mexico’s government is making another breach in the protective hedge around America.
Learn more: Read “Mexico’s New Revolution.”