Mexico’s president says he won’t fight drug cartels on US orders, calls it a ‘Mexico First’ policy

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president says he won’t fight drug cartels on U.S. orders, in the clearest explanation yet of his refusal to confront the gangs. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has laid out various justifications over the years for his “hugs, not bullets” policy of avoiding clashes with the cartels. But on Friday he made it clear it is part of what he called  a “Mexico First” policy. López Obrador basically argued that drugs were a U.S. problem, not a Mexican one. He offered to help limit the flow of drugs into the United States, but only, he said, on humanitarian grounds.