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By KELIN DILLON

On Wednesday, Oct. 11, Mexico’s Mechanism for Access to Truth and Historical Clarification (MEH) denounced the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) for having allegedly disobeyed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) orders to reopen case files on the Mexican Dirty War – a stance López Obrador has since staunchly refuted himself, instead claiming the Armed Forces “obey” him.

In his daily press conference on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 12, AMLO dismissed the MEH’s claims that the Sedena circumvented his commands, instead accusing the commission – which was created for the purpose of providing transparency and truth – of lying.

“They are wrong or they are misinformed, they are not being objective, they are not speaking the truth,” said López Obrador at the time.

“Because first, the Armed Forces obey me, second, there is a conviction of will to hide absolutely nothing, making everything transparent is a golden rule of democracy and I know that they have handed over everything they have in the Sedena,” continued the federal executive.

AMLO went on to say there would be no reason to hide additional facts behind the Dirty War files and insisted all the available information had been provided to the MEH.

“What would be the purpose of hiding the facts if it is already more than known that there was an authoritarian period of repression known as the Dirty War?” said López Obrador. “We created that committee, how can we not deliver the information? No, there are conservative infiltrators in our movement and with each passing day we find new things.”

Meanwhile, López Obrador used the same press conference to place blame on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for “fabricating crimes” against controversial former Secretary of National Defense Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, calling the DEA’s accusations against Cienfuegos as “revenge” and a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty.