Mexico says Trump shows 'solidarity' after suspect freed

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Saturday he received a phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump to express "solidarity" over the events this week in the northern Mexican city of Culiacan, where the government backed off from an attempt to arrest a drug suspect in the face of extraordinary cartel violence.

López Obrador thanked Trump in a Twitter message for showing "respect for our sovereignty and his willingness to maintain a good neighbor policy."

Speaking later in the day at a public event in the southern state of Oaxaca, López Obrador elaborated on the call, saying he explained to Trump that "we Mexicans have to resolve in a sovereign and independent way" matters as delicate as those in Culiacan.

The gunfight in the city of roughly 800,000 residents was triggered Thursday by an attempt to arrest Ovidio Guzmán, son of convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, in response to a U.S. request for extradition.

López Obrador's government came under heavy domestic criticism for releasing the son after gunmen took soldiers hostage and waged open battle in the streets for hours, with cartel foot soldiers patrolling with machine guns mounted in truck beds. Five attackers, a member of the National Guard, a civilian and an escaped prisoner died in the gun battles.

The elder Guzmán has been sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. Ovidio Guzmán was indicted in 2018 in Washington, along with a fourth brother, on charges of trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

The government said it decided to drop the operation Thursday to avoid further loss of life. Critics say it ceded territory to a cartel.

"We are not dictators, we are not tyrants," López Obrador said Saturday. "We will always respect the life of...