Criminals threaten Lopez Obrador for his fight against gasoline theft in Mexico | World

In the morning, strangers left a van parked in front of the Salamanca refinery, in the central state of Guanajuato, in which was a dark object surrounded by several white threads, according to an image conveyed by the presidency Mexican.

The presidential spokesman, Jesús Ramírez, said the incident "is obviously a problem related to agents, the scale of the fight against fuel theft" and explained that the Attorney General's office has already opened an investigation.

"There were no explosives in the abandoned truck," Ramirez said, without giving further details about the object.

"False alarm," López Obrador said simply before concluding his morning press conference.

López Obrador promotes with the Armed Forces a national strategy against fuel theft, a crime that in recent years has caused annual losses of about $ 3 billion for the state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos , in addition to a wave of murders.

In the area where the vehicle was located, signs signed by the alleged leader of a criminal group called Santa Rosa de Lima were found.

The text demands that López Obrador release newly arrested alleged criminals and that the military be fired from Guanajuato, which has become one of the most violent states in Mexico for fuel theft.

The criminal group threatens to kill the military and civilians if they do not respond to their demands.

In this post, former drug chief Samuel Gonzalez told AFP that, although other presidents had already been targeted by organized crime threats in the case of López Obrador, this is particularly relevant because he does not have a Presidential Guard.

"They send a very direct message, a threat that the government must take to its full extent and re-evaluate the security situation of the president," he said.

López Obrador, who badumed the presidency on 1 December, dissolved the body of the presidential guard and has a small security team.