President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said local residents in some communities tried to protect traffickers and stop drug seizures.
MEXICO CITY — Mexico's president appealed to the country's citizens Tuesday not to accept holiday handouts and gifts from drug gangs, after videos posted online showed garish pickup trucks handing out loads of gifts while bystanders described the drivers as members of the Jalisco drug cartel.
Authorities have not confirmed the source of the gifts — mostly toys — in the Dec. 21 handout in a low-income neighborhood in the city of Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state. Asked about the videos Tuesday, López Obrador conceded the practice was re-emerging; in the 2010s, such cartel Christmas gift rounds were common in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. López Obrador said it was part of a strategy by criminal gangs to win popular support.
Local residents in three states have also held demonstrations against the construction of barracks for the National Guard. López Obrador attributed what he described as"three or four cases" of local opposition to cartel influence. However, in the case of demonstrations in Mexico City, residents have said they view the barracks as unnecessary, environmentally damaging or likely to increase violence in the neighborhood.
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