Mexican president calls U.S. State Department "liars" over human rights report

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called the U.S. State Department “liars” on Tuesday over a new human rights report questioning his government's record of abuses. 

The U.S. Department of State 2022 Human Rights Practices report, released on Monday, claimed that there were several reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by police, military, and other officials, forced disappearances, and torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners, among others in Mexico. 

“Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings by police, military, and other government officials; forced disappearance by government agents; torture or cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; restrictions on free expression and media, including violence against journalists; serious acts of government corruption; insufficient investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence,” the report states. 

When asked by reporters about the report at a news conference, Lopez Obrador said that the Department of State was “lying” and that the U.S. “believes it’s the government of the world.”

"It's not worth getting angry about, that's just how they are," said Lopez Obrador.

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel rejected the criticism and said that the findings in the report were accurate. 

"As it relates to Mexico, the reported involvement of members of Mexican police, military, and other government institutions in serious acts of corruption and unlawful arbitrary killings remain a serious challenge for Mexico and that's why they were highlighted in our report," he said at a news briefing.