Mexican President to U.S.: 'Don’t Trust Ted Cruz, He is Crooked'

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) told U.S. voters not to trust Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), calling him “crooked” (chueco) and a “busybody” (metiche) during a Tuesday news conference in response to the Texas politician’s recent comments about cartel violence in Mexico.

“Why does he have to get involved?” Lopez Obrador said in Spanish. “I would tell our friends in the United States and our countrymen living over there to consider him a busybody.”

AMLO went on to claim Cruz was interfering in Mexican politics to create discord.

“If [Cruz] wants to be governor, legislator or president, the U.S. people should not consider someone like that,” AMLO said. “Imagine a candidate who interferes with the internal life of another country. Do not trust him, that Ted Cruz  — because he is crooked.”

The statements from Lopez Obrador come in response to comments made during a February 16 meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cruz said the breakdown of civil society and rule of law in Mexico posed a danger to the United States.

“The current climate faced by politicians and journalists in Mexico is the deadliest ever,” Cruz said. “In 2020, more journalist were killed in Mexico than in any other country in the world. It alone accounted for a third of the journalists killed.”

Cruz also stated that since September 2020, 80 politicians have been murdered and 60 candidates dropped out of their races under threats from organized crime.

“President Lopez Obrador seems intent on making all these trends worse,” Cruz said. “On Friday he used his morning press conference to intimidate one of Mexico’s highest-profile journalists, Carlos Loret De Mola. He waved around private financial information and asked authorities to investigate it. He seems to be indulging in abusing power.”

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.