Mexican president calls on civilians not to support drug cartels despite any pressure

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president called on citizens Friday not to support drug cartels, or oppose the installation of National Guard barracks, after a number of videos surfaced showing residents cheering convoys of cartel gunmen.

Several videos have been posted on social media in recent weeks of villages in southern Chiapas, showing farmers lining roadways near the border with Guatemala and cheering convoys of Sinaloa Cartel gunmen.

The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are fighting turf battles in the region to control the smuggling of drugs and migrants, and income from extortion.

“I want to call on people not to support the gangs,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday, noting that he understood that the gangs may be pressuring civilians to appear in such videos “out of fear” of reprisals.

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López Obrador acknowledged the cartels have mounted a public relations effort.

“They are going to shoot videos and post them on social media, they also have propaganda operations,” the president said. “They tell people ‘line up on the highway,’ and if people don’t line up, they could be subject to reprisals.”

But López Obrador also accused anybody who opposes the building of National Guard barracks in their communities of aiding the cartels.

“If they don’t want the Guard to be there, they are protecting criminals,” he said.

In fact, residents of several municipalities across Mexico have opposed barracks construction for various reasons, including that they would be on environmentally sensitive or culturally significant land, or because they don’t feel the Guards’ presence helps.

López Obrador has made the quasi-military National Guard the centerpiece of law enforcement in Mexico, though critics say its expansion has come at the expense of civilian police, who in many cases are better suited to investigate and prevent crime.

There is no doubt there have been incidents — especially in the western state of Michoacan — in which drug cartels have forced local residents to demonstrate against the army and National Guard, and even attack or confront federal forces.

But inhabitants in many parts of Mexico have been left under the complete domination of the cartels for years, forcing them into a form of coexistence with the gangs.