Mexico’s president-elect says he’ll stop US copter purchase

Mexico's president-elect says he'll stop US copter purchase | iNFOnews.ca
Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is surrounded by the press as he leaves a hotel where he gave a press conference in Mexico City, Monday, July 9, 2018. Lopez Obrador campaigned on a promise to return to Mexico’s traditional foreign policy of nonintervention. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

MEXICO CITY – Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he will cancel the pending purchase by Mexico’s navy of eight armed Lockheed Martin MH-60R helicopters from the United States government.

Lopez Obrador mentioned nixing the planned $1.2 billion deal Wednesday as an example of extensive cost-cutting measures his government will undertake.

In April, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of the helicopters, saying it would improve the security of a strategic regional partner. In its statement then, it said the helicopters would help Mexico fight criminal organizations.

The State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the proposed sale.

Lopez Obrador won Mexico’s July 1 election in a landslide. He is to take office Dec. 1.

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