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(CNN Spanish) - “The decision was made by the security cabinet, jointly, the Secretaries of Defense, Marine, Public Security. I supported that position because I believe that the most important thing is the protection of people. ” This is how the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, explained this Friday when he was asked why Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was released after being arrested this Thursday in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
Obrador said the decision to suspend operations Thursday in Culiacán, Sinaloa, was made by the Federal Security Cabinet of Mexico, a decision that "backed up" to "save lives."
Speaking in Oaxaca on Friday, López Obrador said the situation became very complicated and that "many citizens, people and human beings were at risk," adding that "it was decided to protect people's lives."
Mexican security forces participated in a prolonged shooting with allegedly heavily armed cartel members in the state of Sinaloa on Thursday in an operation that caught a son of jailed drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
López Obrador also did not deny when journalists asked him that part of the suspension operations included releasing the son of “El Chapo,” something that Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told Reuters Thursday night.
“It's not about massacres. That is over, ”said the president reiterating the decision to stop operations. "The capture of a criminal can only be worth the lives of people," he adds, "you can not put out the fire with fire."
"We don't want war," López Obrador continued. “The previous strategies turned our country into a cemetery. I've said it many times. Nothing through force. It is not easy, it is a process, ”he said supporting his administration.
“That authoritarian policy of the state reason caused thousands of deaths, more than one million victims. We are not going to continue with that. We don't want war, ”said López Obrador explaining the decision to free the son of Chapo.
“I have long argued that peace and tranquility are fruits of justice. And I will not change. Here the important thing is to keep the convictions, the principles, not to zigzag. We have a defined policy to guarantee peace and tranquility. And we already know what not to do. The use of force, violence, massacres. We already know that that does not give results. ”
AMLO stressed that the lives of human beings had to be protected.
“Yesterday was a situation resulting from a circumstance in which it was valued that we had to protect the lives of human beings, which is the most sacred thing there is. There is no criminal association between authority and crime in the case we are dealing with, ”he explained.
"They did well the controls that made this decision," the president added.
AMLO