Mexico rejects US 'interference' on drug cartels

ANKARA

Mexico has turned down the U.S. "interference" to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

"The Senate of the Republic expresses its rejection of the declarations of the U.S. president regarding the possible designation of Mexican criminal organizations as terrorists," Sen. Monica Fernandez, chairwoman of the board of directors, said on Thursday in a speech shared by the Senate on Twitter.

The remarks came days after U.S. President Donald Trump gave a green light to listing criminal groups of Central American country as terrorists over a petition to White House filed by the LeBaron community in Mexico.

She said the Senate "ratifies its position of unrestricted defense of sovereignty and national unity and rejects any attempt of intervention by another country".

"I don't want to say what I am gonna do, but they will be designated," Trump said on Tuesday in an interview with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

The LeBaron community, a part of the Mormon community that broke away from the Mormon Church and formed a sect in Mexico, filled the petition on Monday after three women and six children from a Mormon family were killed earlier this month in northwestern Sonora state by drug cartels.

Mexico has long been besieged by a deadly violence with drug cartels and criminal gangs fighting for control of territories.

The total number of victims of violent killings since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018 is approaching 20,000, according to the country's National Public Security System.