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News > Latin America

Trump Calls Mexico 'Most Dangerous Country,' Mexico Not Amused

  • Three of US President Donald Trump's eight border-wall prototypes near completion along the US- Mexico border in San Diego, California, October 2017.

    Three of US President Donald Trump's eight border-wall prototypes near completion along the US- Mexico border in San Diego, California, October 2017. | Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake

Published 18 January 2018
Opinion

US President Donald Trump called Mexico the "most dangerous country in the world" on Twitter Thursday, citing zero evidence – and Mexico immediately countered.

US President Donald Trump launched a Twitter attack against Mexico, posting: "We need the Wall for the safety and security of our country. We need the Wall to help stop the massive inflow of drugs from Mexico, now rated the number one most dangerous country in the world. If there is no wall, there is no Deal!"

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Mexico was not amused: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately launched a statistics-based counterattack via a six-point press release directly addressing Trump's statement.  

"Despite Mexico having a meaningful violence problem, it's manifestly false that Mexico is the most dangerous country in the world," reads the document.

The statement then cites 2014 United Nations' statistics suggesting that Mexico's homicide rate is way below that of other countries in Latin America: 16.4 murders for every 100,000 citizens.

Unfortunately, the statistics cited by Mexico don't stand up to scrutiny: multiple reports have concluded that 2017 was the country's most violent year in two decades, with up to 27,000 murders committed, although Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and South Sudan are still widely considered the world's most dangerous countries.

That figure represents only confirmed killings, and doesn't include the disappeared or victims found in mass graves across the country.

The Foreign Ministry also addressed Trump's wall comment, insisting they "won't pay, in any way and under no circumstance, for a wall or physical barrier built on US territory along the border with Mexico."

Last week, the US State Department issued a travel warning for five Mexican states – Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacán and Guerrero –placing them in the same category as Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

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