Barr warns Mexican government ‘lost control of the country’ as cartel wars rage

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government lost control of his country, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr said Thursday on Fox News.

Barr joined “Jesse Watters Primetime” to discuss his new book, “One Damn Thing After Another,” and commented on new scenes of fiery carnage in Nuevo Laredo and other towns just stones’ throws from the United States.

Barr, who served under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump, told host Jesse Watters that border security was a joint “principal concern” of his and Trump’s — and that border czar Kamala Harris is failing at her role.

“I went down there a couple of times to see whether we could stiffen the spine of this president [Lopez Obrador] down there who believes in hugs, not bullets — and they’re losing,” he said.

“They’ve lost control of the country, in my opinion.”

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Former Attorney General Bill Barr. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The cartels have tens of billions of dollars at their disposal. They can corrupt anyone they want to down there, and they have armies — literally armies that are increasingly paramilitary — dressed like military, and armored cars.”

Barr recounted an attempt to arrest Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of violent cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in that the cartel summoned 700 paramilitary troops with machine guns mounted on trucks to rebuff law enforcement.

He said that incident and recent violence at the border should trouble the United States.

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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. (Ismael Rosas / Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

“What I’ve always been worried about is that the Mexican government is going to share sovereignty with the cartels and reach a modus vivendi with them. And we have no control over that territory. And now we’ve lost control of the border.”

Barr praised Trump’s leadership on border security, saying he “fought like hell” against reticent federal judges and opposition interest groups.

When asked about his falling-out with Trump, who recently called him an incompetent “Bushie,” Barr simply shrugged.