MEXICO CITY 

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused the US on Tuesday of lying about human rights violations in his country, pointing to the wrongdoings of its neighbor to the north.

During his morning press conference, Lopez Obrador emphatically rejected an annual human rights report issued by the US State Department which warned of "significant human rights issues" in Mexico.

The briefing cited "credible reports" of crimes such as unlawful or arbitrary killings by the police and military, forced disappearances by government agents and torture.

The president described the report’s findings as “lies” and outlined how the US government is keeping journalist Julian Assange under arrest, undermining the human rights of the Wikileaks founder while criticizing the US for failing to stop its fentanyl crisis. 

"It is not true. They are lying. It is pure politicking, with all due respect. It is their nature. They do not want to abandon the Monroe Doctrine and before, the so-called Manifest Destiny. They do not want to change, so they believe they are the government of the world, and they only see the speck in someone else's eye and not the beam in their own. But it is not a reason to get angry. It is just the way they are," he added.

In addition, Lopez Obrador mentioned a report by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh which accused the Biden administration of blowing up Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines to sabotage its natural gas supply.

"If we are talking about acts of violence, how is it that an award-winning journalist in the United States claims that the US government sabotaged the gas pipeline from Russia to Europe?" he taunted.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel responded to Lopez Obrador's comments. 

“We have never been ones to indicate that we are the government of the world or some kind of edict like that

“The reported involvement of members of the Mexican police, military and other government institutions in serious acts of corruption and unlawful arbitrary killings remains a serious challenge for Mexico, and that's why they were highlighted in our report," he added.