By Maria Ortiz
30 Sep 2023, 01:46 AM EDT
The governor of Florida and Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 elections, Ron DeSantis, reiterated on Friday that he will use “lethal force against the Mexican drug cartels” if he is elected to the White House in 2024, despite the criticism that the president of Mexico previously made of him for this statement.
“I will use lethal force against the Mexican drug cartels (…) They have great military power and are protected by China,” DeSantis said in a speech during the California Republican Party Convention (CAGOP), which takes place in Anaheim during this weekend.
The words of the conservative politician were related to the crisis derived from the consumption of fentanyl, a drug that kills about 150 people a day by overdose in the United States, and in whose trafficking organizations based in Mexico and China are mostly involved.
“Our country demands to recover its sovereignty (…) They are taking it away from us at the border, turning people into addicts who were not addicted,” added the Republican candidate from the meeting held in Anaheim, a city located 35 miles south of Los Angeles. .
What DeSantis has not said is how he could deploy US military personnel on Mexican soil without the consent of that country’s government, which would be a serious violation of international law.
But for DeSantis to reach the Oval Office of the White House, as he intends, he would first have to become the Republican representative in the presidential race, but it is former President Donald Trump who leads the polls among the candidates for the Republican presidential candidacy with a 55.1% voting intention, followed by DeSantis with 13.3%, according to the average of surveys that FiveThirtyEight published this week.
Trump also gave a speech on Friday at CAGOP and targeted the current governor during his speech, stating that he owes it to him to “turn Florida red,” alluding to the support he provided him in the state elections held in 2018.
DeSantis then responded to Trump: “If you want credit for turning Florida red (Republican), then you should also take credit for turning Georgia and Arizona blue (Democratic).”
CAGOP expects to receive around 1,000 people, including voters and donors, until this Sunday, when a few days close in which other Republican candidates will also participate, such as South Carolina senator Tim Scott and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, to present their projects. politicians.
Keep reading:
– Ron DeSantis is not the only Republican candidate willing to use lethal force against drug cartels in Mexico
– López Obrador repudiated the use of force proposed by Ron DeSantis against drug trafficking in Mexico