Although four South Carolina residents were recently violently kidnapped in Mexico, leading to two of their deaths and the death of an innocent bystander, local officials believe the country still poses less of a risk than America.

“Mexico is safer than the United States. There is no issue with traveling safely through Mexico. That’s something the U.S. citizens also know, just like our fellow Mexicans that live in the U.S.,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during a press briefing on Monday (March 13), according to CNN. As previously reported by REVOLT, on March 3, Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric Williams ventured from South Carolina so that McGee could allegedly undergo cosmetic surgery. Just as the group crossed the Texas border and entered Matamoros, they were ambushed by members of the Gulf Cartel. The incident is still under investigation.

“U.S. government alerts say that it’s safe to only travel [in the states of] Campeche and Yucatan. If that were the case, so many Americans wouldn’t be coming in to live in Mexico City and the rest of the country. In the past few years is when more Americans have come to live in Mexico. So, what’s happening? Why the paranoia?” Obrador continued. He then suggested that stipulations such as the United States issuing a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory were all part of “a campaign against Mexico from conservative US politicians that don’t want this country to keep developing for the good of the Mexican people.”

CNN noted, “Mexico’s overall homicide rate is among the highest in the world, and the country has been troubled by an epidemic of disappearances with more than 100,000 Mexicans and migrants still missing.” Still, Obrador sees the warnings to American citizens as an “offense to the people of Mexico.” The president added, “We are not a protectorate of the United States or a colony of the United States. Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country. We don’t take orders from anyone.” Woodard and Brown were named as the American casualties, while the innocent bystander was identified as 33-year-old Arely Servando.