AMLO invites Xi to visit Mexico during a meeting focused on fentanyl

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)invited this Thursday his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinpingto visit Mexico, during the meeting they held in San Francisco (USA) and which focused on cooperation to stop drug trafficking. fentanyl.

At the end of the meeting, held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC, in English), the Mexican Foreign Ministry reported on social networks that López Obrador invited Xi to visit Mexico to learn about the Sonora Plan for lithium exploitation. and renewable energies, as well as the Interoceanic Corridor project of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Mexico and China “They have 51 years of solid diplomatic relations and cooperate on essential issues, such as combating trafficking in chemical precursors of synthetic drugs.”

He added that both countries are strengthening their trade relations and detailed that López Obrador thanked Xi for the help sent to face the devastation caused by the impact of the Hurricane Otis in the state of Guerrero.

Mexican government sources reported that much of the meeting would focus on fentanyl trafficking, a phenomenon that has strained Mexico’s relations with both China and the United States.

According to the US, Mexican cartels use chemical precursors from China to manufacture this synthetic opioid, fifty times more powerful than heroin, and then sell it illegally in the United States, where more than 70,000 people died last year from the drug. consumption of this substance.

López Obrador, who has denied that fentanyl is manufactured in his country, sent a letter to Xi last April asking him to cooperate in the fight against this drug, but China He ignored it then.

In the meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden on Wednesday in San Francisco, the United States and China finally agreed to impose greater controls on the import of those chemical precursors from the Asian giant that are used to manufacture fentanyl.

Mexican Government sources stressed this Thursday that “Combating the trafficking of illicit substances such as fentanyl and its precursors is essential for Mexico.”

“Mexico will seek to strengthen a dialogue mechanism with Beijingwhich has the potential to substantially increase cooperation and exchange of information to combat trafficking in illicit substances and regulate their precursors institutionally,” they added.

At the beginning of the meeting between Xi and Lopez Obradorthe first between them, the president of China congratulated the Mexican on the “progress” of the Latin American country and expressed “condolences” due to the devastation of Hurricane Otis.