Parents in the US are to blame for the country’s drug overdose crisis because they do not hug their children enough, Mexico’s president has claimed.

It is the latest provocative remark by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador about the problems caused by fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that is held responsible for about 70,000 US deaths a year.

He had been stung by calls in America to designate Mexican drug gangs as terrorist organisations.