Mexico City, Mexico - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum hit back against White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller for comments he made criticizing Mexico's justice system.
Speaking to service members in Washington, DC, Miller laid the blame for the US' drug trafficking and immigration problem at the feet of Mexico's judicial system, which he says has failed and created a lawless state south of the border.
He said Mexican cartels "not only export massive death in the form of narcotics to our country, but they also export sophisticated criminal enterprises whose objective is to destabilize our democracy and to end the rule of law."
"There's a reason why in Mexico, the justice system doesn't work, the political system doesn't work, the legal system doesn't work," he continued.
"It's because you have territory controlled and occupied by terrorist organizations who kill, extort, kidnap or murder anybody who gets in the way."
Miller's comments came before a ceremony in which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other administration officials awarded 50 service members the Mexican Border Defense Medal.
Asked about Miller's comments during her daily press conference, Sheinbaum on Tuesday said that "we're not going to get into a debate" and reiterated her government's "good coordination" with the US.
"Nobody else governs, the people rule," Sheinbaum said, disputing Miller's claim that cartels rule over Mexico. "We’re a government of the people… We work every day for security and peace in our country and there are results."
"I'm not going to get into a debate with him," she said. "We've always said that Mexico should not be a defining element in their [political] campaign."
"The United States has to look at itself, particularly with regard to the issue of drug use and the distribution [of illicit substances] and money laundering."