During today’s, September 22, morning press conference, a heated argument occurred between the President of Mexico and journalist Jorge Ramos regarding violence in Mexico.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador was questioned during the press conference by Univisión journalist, Jorge Ramos because the current administration has been the most violent of the last three sexenios (six-year presidential terms). He added that the president’s strategies regarding security haven’t been able to stop criminal activities and that that is the reason for the current number of homicides in the current administration.

Obrador has a current number of 126,206 intentional homicides against the 124,478 that occurred during Peña Nieto’s term and the 121,683 that occurred during Felipe Calderón’s term, which means that there has been an increase of 4,523 homicides in the last 12 years. However, the president didn’t agree with these numbers, stating that the way they were presented by Jorge Ramos weren’t actually reflecting reality.

During his turn, the journalist continued saying that if things didn’t change regarding security matters, at the end of Obrador’s six-year term his administration would end up being the most violent one in the modern history of Mexico.

Obrador argued that he didn’t agree with him and he wasn’t correct. “It all depends on how you say things are, and how we consider them, they way they must be shown,” the President said to defend himself from the journalist’s comments. The president explained, in a graph, the intentional homicide rate of the last five sexenios.

Violence greatly increased during this century, in PAN administrations and intensified during the last PRI administration. Obrador said that when he entered office, the country’s homicide rate was already going up. He, however, did not mention a reason as to why the violence rates haven’t dropped during the four years since he took office.

Intentional homicide rates during the current six-year term haven’t dropped, according to information revealed by the president. He used a graph which was also the same one he used during his visit to Tijuana last August 19, 2022.
This data was mentioned during this argument as Jorge Ramos stated that the president’s information was not including the month of September. He also said that if the current “Abrazos No Balazos” strategy continued, at the end of his administration, the number of homicides would be 65,000 more to the ones already recorded. This means that around 200,000 people would have been murdered in Mexico when AMLO leaves office.

The president resoundingly stated that he wouldn’t change his strategy because there have been results. In addition, he said that those who want him to change his strategy are his adversaries and enemies, the conservatives, who don’t want anything to be changed and, in fact, would prefer more deaths.

Moments later, the president spoke about the popularity that he has where he still leads. The president argues that the fact that people approve of him means that there has been a positive change in the reality that is lived in the country. However, people keep dying and suffering the consequences of violence. Approval ratings, as well as the intentions to change a country, don’t change these facts. Actions, however, do.

RELATED VIDEO: AMLO talks about his visit to northern Mexico to organize airports