Early this month, Mexican gunmen murdered nine Americans, including six children, leaving bodies and vehicles incinerated. Dawna Langford, relative of the victims, described the attack as a demonstration of “evil.” Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, had a different response.

“It was lamentable, painful because children died,” AMLO said. The term “lamentable” would better suit an accident, and the proclamation that children “died” implies some sort of illness. Just so you know, AMLO, the Americans were all murdered, including a baby only eight months old, but AMLO doesn’t want to throw down with the murderers.

“Do we want to resolve the problem the same way? By declaring war?” he asked. “That, in the case of our country, showed that it does not work. That was a failure. It caused more violence.” Not to worry, because AMLO has a better plan.

“Abrazos, no balazos,” said AMLO, “hugs not bullets.” This is because “violence cannot be confronted with violence” and “the bad cannot be confronted with the bad. The bad needs to be confronted doing the good.” As that confirmed, AMLO has a flair for the absurd. On the other hand, AMLO is up front about being a gutless poltroon.

Apparently he didn’t notice that mass murderer Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the violent ISIS cartel, was recently confronted with violence by U.S. Special Forces, including a canine named Conan. For all those not chummy with the ISIS, the result was very good.

In 2014, before AMLO took office, 43 Mexican students went missing and are presumed killed. Evidence points to Mexican police and military but AMLO has been pretty quiet about those missing students. They were on their way to commemorate the Tlatelolco massacre of Oct. 2, 1968, when Mexican troops and police gunned down hundreds of unarmed student protesters.

Like all other Mexican presidents, AMLO has been pretty quiet about the largest unsolved mass shooting in North American history. Maybe it’s too late to give the perpetrators un abrazo.

Last month, police in California arrested Mexican Carlos Vazquez-Orozco for the murder of police officer Brian Ishmael, and Mexican national Romiro Bravo Morales as an accessory. No word from AMLO on that one.

The Mexican president was also quiet when Mexican national Gustavo Perez Arriaga, illegally present in the United States, was arrested for the murder of California police officer Ronil “Ron” Singh, a legal immigrant from Fiji. AMLO failed to register any response to that murder, one of many by Mexican nationals in the United States.

In fact, the worst mass murderer in California history is previously deported Mexican national Juan Corona. He murdered and mutilated at least 25 victims, all Americans and including blacks and Native Americans. By all indications, no Mexican president has ever called those murders “lamentable” or “painful,” much less “evil.”

President Trump, who ordered the hit on al-Baghdadi, offered help in going after the murderers of the nine Americans. AMLO turned it down and after one of the most evil acts in recent memory he rattles on about abrazos.

Mexico is not an ally of the United States and AMLO is a gutless buffoon who should at the very least be silent. If President Trump opted to take action alone against the killers it would be hard to blame him.