Mexican President Obrador wildly claims his country is safer than the US after deadly kidnapping

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has wildly declared that his country is safer than the US despite the recent high-profile kidnapping of four Americans with a fatal outcome by a cartel group.

Speaking at his daily Monday morning briefing, Obrador said: “Mexico is safer than the United States. No problem to travel safely in Mexico. This is something that US citizens know as well as our fellow Mexicans living in the US.”

Despite the president’s insistence, official figures show that Mexico’s nationwide homicide rate is about 28 per 100,000 residents, about four times higher than the US.

Obrador also shrugged off a recent US State Department notice advising Americans to avoid travel to 32 states in Mexico and issuing additional warnings to 24 states.

“US government warnings say it is only safe to travel [in the states of] Campeche and Yucatan. If that were the case, then so many Americans would not come to live in Mexico City and the rest of the country,” he said.

“More Americans have moved to Mexico in the last few years. So what’s going on? Why paranoia?

He further accused American “conservative politicians” and the media of leading an alleged campaign against his country.

“These conservative politicians… dominate most of the media in the United States,” he said. “This violence is not reality. This is pure, despicable manipulation.”

The president appears to be fixing the damage to his country’s image after he caught the world’s attention after the kidnapping of four Americans on March 3 in the border town of Matamoros.

Eric James Williams, 38, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Latavia “Tay” McGee, 35, was eventually located in a city shack and taken to Texas for medical treatment.

Two of their friends, Shaid Woodard, 33, and Zindell Brown, were killed in the kidnapping, and the infamous Gulf Cartel apologized for the incident and handed over five members they claimed were responsible for the kidnappings.

Following the incident, the US State Department stated, “Violent crimes such as murder, kidnapping, auto theft, and robbery are widespread in Mexico. The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens in many areas of Mexico because travel by U.S. government employees to certain areas is prohibited or restricted.”

Along with the federal government’s warning, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued its own warning advising residents to avoid crossing the border during spring break due to cartel violence.

The state’s latest alert comes after two sisters from Penitas and a friend went missing after traveling to Mexico to sell clothes at a flea market, authorities announced Friday.

The FBI said it knew about sisters Maritza Trinidad Pérez Ríos, 47, Marina Pérez Ríos, 48, and their friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes, 53, who were missing for about two weeks.

A group of women were reportedly driving a mid-1990s green Chevy Silverado to a flea market in the town of Montemorelos, about three hours from the border.