MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 Mexico鈥檚 president claimed Monday that his country is safer than the United States, a week after two U.S. citizens were killed and two kidnapped and later rescued in the border city of Matamoros.
President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador said U.S. travel warnings and reports of violence in Mexico were the result of a conspiracy by conservative politicians and U.S. media outlets to smear his administration.
Despite L贸pez Obrador鈥檚 assurances that Mexico was safe for travel, the FBI confirmed last week that three other women from the small Texas town of Pe帽itas have been missing in Mexico since late February.
鈥淢exico is safer than the United States,鈥 L贸pez Obrador said at his morning news briefing. 鈥淭here is no problem in traveling safely in Mexico.鈥
Mexico's nationwide homicide rate is about 28 per 100,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the U.S. homicide rate is barely one-quarter as high, at around 7 per 100,000.
The president brushed off continued concern over violence. Currently, the U.S. State Department has 鈥渄o not travel鈥 advisories for six of Mexico's 32 states plagued by drug cartel violence, and 鈥渞econsider travel鈥 warnings for another seven states.
鈥淭his is a campaign against Mexico by these conservative politicians in the United States who do not want the transformation of our country to continue,鈥 L贸pez Obrador said.
The Mexican president included U.S. media outlets in the supposed conspiracy.
鈥淭hese conservative politicians ... dominate the majority of the news media in the United States,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his violence is not a reality,鈥 he added. 鈥淚t is pure, vile manipulation.鈥
As if to undercut that statement, police in the industrial and farming state of Guanajuato reported that 8 people had been shot to death and another seven wounded in an attack on a nightclub over the weekend.
The attack late Saturday killed six men and two women at the club in the largely rural township of Apaseo El Grande, where rival cartels have been fighting for control for years.
