The US has been pressuring Mexico to crack down on drug production labs within the country. However, it seems that Mexico has been waging an "imaginary war on drugs" and possibly affecting relations between the US and Mexico.

Figures from Mexico's defense ministry were recently obtained by Reuters, which found that in order to go with the US pressure to crack down on fentanyl production, Mexican authorities are also raiding drug facilities that are not in use anymore. In fact, they are only raiding a handful of active drug labs, with 95% of seizures this year coming from inactive ones.

The data from the Mexican Defense Ministry (SEDENA) came after a freedom of information request. It showed that out of the 527 labs raided by Mexican authorities in the first seven months of 2023, only 24 drug labs were active. This means that less than 5% were active, and the rest were already out of use by the time Mexican authorities raided them.

The data also showed that it is actually the pattern that is happening throughout the first four and a half years of Andres Manuel Lipez Obrador (AMLO)'s administration, with police raiding inactive labs 89% of the time from December 2018 to August 2023.

The Biden administration has been pressuring the AMLO government to crack down on the clandestine drug labs around Mexico, which could mean a detriment in US-Mexico relations as it exposes that the AMLO administration has been inflating its record amid pressure from Washington.

Mexico Violence Fueled by Drug Cartels Forcing People To Migrate to the US

Meanwhile, another point of contention in the complicated relations between the US and Mexico is immigration, and it seems one of the factors driving immigration is the drug gangs that the Mexican government should have been going after in the first place.

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Another report from Reuters showed that drug cartel-related violence is forcing many to leave their homes and seek a better life across the border. The battles between these drug cartels, as well as their expansion to once-peaceful neighborhoods and turning them into battlegrounds, have fueled what migration experts are calling the "largest exodus of Mexican families in modern history."

Many of those migrating are forced out of their own communities, with 88% of Mexican migrants saying that they were migrating to escape violence this year.

Mexico May Have Released Fake Numbers Regarding Missing People as a Result of the Drug War

As the Mexican drug war raged, this year's number of "disappeared" people decreased as the Mexican elections approached. However, this lower number has raised several eyebrows as there was little transparency regarding the numbers the government presented.

According to The Guardian, the government announced it was able to confirm just 12,377 of the more than 113,000 cases of disappeared people, with another 16,681 located. However, roughly two-thirds of the cases did not have enough information, with accusations that the registry itself was politicized to make the ruling party under AMLO look good just before next year's elections.

READ MORE: Mexico: Bodies of 5 Students Found Dead Inside a Car in Celaya

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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