Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador turned down Donald Trump's offer to help Mexico 'wage war' on the drug cartels and 'wipe them off the face of the earth' in the wake of a mass murder of American citizens.
López Obrador on Tuesday rejected Trump's approach, saying his predecessors waged war against the cartels 'and it didn't work.'
He told reporters in Mexico he would speak with his American counterpart to thank him for the offer but didn't think U.S. aid was needed.
'I don't think we need the intervention of a foreign government to deal with these cases,' he said.
Trump took to Twitter to mourn the three American mothers and six children from a Mormon community based in northern Mexico who were killed in an attack blamed on drug cartel gunmen.
And he offered American help.
'If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively. The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!,' Trump wrote on Twitter. The expected conversation later Tuesday marks the second phone call in a week between the two leaders.
Lopez Obrador said Saturday he received a phone call from Trump to express 'solidarity' over the events in the northern Mexican city of Culiacan, where the government backed off from an attempt to arrest a drug suspect in the face of extraordinary cartel violence.
The gunfight in the city of roughly 800,000 residents was triggered Thursday by an attempt to arrest Ovidio Guzmán, son of convicted drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera, in response to a U.S. request for extradition.
Lopez Obrador said he told his U.S. counterpart that 'we Mexicans have to resolve in a sovereign and independent way' matters as delicate as those in Culiacan...
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