⁍ Mexico’s president promised to clean up the armed forces but backed its current leadership after the arrest of a former defense minister on drugs charges in the United States.

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⁍ President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to suspend anyone inside his government implicated in the charges.

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⁍ ‘We won’t cover up for anybody,’ he said, before voicing fulsome support for Cienfuegos’ successor at the head of the army and his counterpart in the navy.

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– Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says his government will not cover up for anyone after the surprise arrest of a former defense minister in the US on drug trafficking charges. “We won’t cover up for anybody,” Lopez Obrador said at a news conference Friday, per Reuters. “They are incorruptible.” Cienfuegos, who served from 2012 to 2018, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday on a warrant from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He is accused of involvement in the drug trade and money laundering. Lopez Obrador said the arrest was linked to the case of Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s security minister from 2006 to 2012, who was detained by US authorities last year on drugs charges. Like Garcia Luna, Cienfuegos had been a major figure in Mexico’s drug war, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over the past two decades. Lopez Obrador said he only heard about the arrest after the event, though he noted that Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Martha Barcena, had informed him about two weeks ago that there was talk of an investigation involving Cienfuegos. There had been no open probe in Mexico on Cienfuegos, and his arrest was linked to the case against Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s security minister from 2006 to 2012. Two Mexican federal sources told Reuters the investigation involved money laundering and drug trafficking. Like Garcia Luna, Cienfuegos had been a major figure in Mexico’s drug war, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over the past two decades.