Mexico welcomes US move to hold off designating drug cartels as terrorist cells

By James Blears

The decision to wait before branding Mexican drug cartels as terrorists and all the ensuing and pursuing  implications, follows a meeting in Mexico City between US Attorney General William Barr, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. President Lopez Obrador says that Barr is a lawyer who understands and appreciates the complexity of the sovereignty issue.

For his part, President Donald Trump says he likes and respects his Mexican counterpart and is deferring the decision for the time being, specifically at his personal request.  This became an intensifying issue,  following the murder of two Mothers and seven children of dual US/Mexican nationality last month, in Northern Mexico.

President Lopez Obrador,  who says he fully supports cooperation with the United States, but NOT US intervention,  has reacted warmly to this latest development by stating: "I welcome him taking our opinion into account. It`s a very good decision to defer designation."