MEXICO CITY — President Trump stated on Twitter that he will hold off on his push to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups. The announcement has been well received by the Mexican government.
Family members of three women and six children who were murdered by suspected drug cartel members in Sonora last month had welcomed Trump’s possible designation.
But the Mexican government had insisted that it would not allow anything that could undermine the country’s sovereignty and met with the U.S. attorney general last week.
It was after that meeting that Trump walked back the terror designation, stating he was doing so "at the request of a man who I like and respect and has worked so well with us."
That was a reference to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who applauded Trump’s decision.
"Politics were invented to avoid confrontations and war," López Obrador said.
