The military build-up on the United States’ southern border, a controversial comment by a Michoacán mayor and a former president’s opposition to the upcoming judicial elections were among the issues President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Friday morning press conference.

Here is a recap of the president’s May 23 mañanera.

Sheinbaum responds to United States’ militarization of its southern border 

A reporter asked Sheinbaum about a United States Embassy social media post in which it said that the U.S. government “has designated certain areas of the southern border of the United States as areas of national defense.”

In keeping with that, the U.S. Northern Command said on Thursday that “1,115 service members were approved to deploy to the Southern Border” as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s “continued whole-of-government approach to gain full operational control of the southern border.”

Thousands of active-duty U.S. troops have already been deployed to the United States’ border with Mexico as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to stop the entry of drugs, and migrants between official ports of entry.

Sheinbaum said on Friday that the United States has “the right to do in their country what they determine.”

US deploys over 1,000 additional troops to border with Mexico

“We also have the right to say we don’t agree,” she added.

Sheinbaum went on to say that “from the first moment” that the United States “increased the military presence on the southern border of their country, we sent a note.”

She was referring to a diplomatic note her government sent to its U.S. counterpart in April after United States Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced “the emergency withdrawal and transfer” to the U.S. Army “of administrative jurisdiction over approximately 109,651 acres of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

In that note, Sheinbaum said on April 16, the Mexican government acknowledged that what the U.S. does “in its own territory” is “a decision for them,” but also expressed its expectation that U.S. military actions wouldn’t “cross the border” and that there would continue to be “the same collaboration there has been until now in security matters.”

On Friday, the president said the diplomatic note set out that Mexico respects what the United States does “in their country,” but also advised the U.S. to “always remember territorial sovereignty.”

She has said on repeated occasions that Mexico will never accept any kind of U.S. intervention in Mexican territory.

On Friday, Sheinbaum stressed that “people don’t migrate for pleasure,” but rather out of “necessity.”

“We’re always going to say that the best way to address migration is with cooperation for development, supporting the communities from which people migrate out of need,” she said.

“… That will always be our position … but they’ve taken the decision to put more military presence on their border to avoid migration. We believe that the orientation should be different,” Sheinbaum said.

Mayor who called for police to use lethal force against armed criminals is ‘wrong,’ says Sheinbaum 

A reporter asked the president her opinion on a declaration by the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, that municipal police should “shoot down” armed criminals.

Mayor Carlos Manzo made the declaration this week after a municipal employee, identified as Adriana Cerca, was shot dead outside a school in Uruapan.

“If you see they are shooting, you have to shoot them down. If they are attacking citizens, you have to shoot them down. No consideration should be given to these scum of society,” Manzo said.

#Michoacán