Former president Felipe Calderón struck back after current President López Obrador blamed him for Mexico’s crime woes and ridiculed him for an outfit he wore 12 years ago.

López Obrador laid the blame for the country’s widespread violence on Calderón’s administration and invoked an actor from Mexico’s golden age of cinema to make fun of the former president’s declaration of war against crime.

“When he declared war on organized crime, he went to Michoacán, to Apatzingán, and he went dressed as a soldier,” the president said. “He put on a vest that was too big for him, looking like Major Borolas, and there he declared war.”

“Borolas” was the nickname of actor Joaquín García Vargas, whose characteristic style included a broad-shouldered suit jacket with wide lapels.

“Calderón stirred up a hornet’s nest and we inherited all this that we suffer today,” said López Obrador. “He didn’t even have a plan, and instead of attending to the causes, he wanted to solve the problem in a spectacular fashion, using only force.”

Calderón immediately fired back on his Twitter account, describing López Obrador’s response to the violence as a failure.

“These days there are more than 100 murders per day, almost twice as many at the end of my administration, which began to clean a house infested with venomous animals,” he tweeted. “Today he lets them grow, because he can’t tell the difference between scorpions and bees.”

In response to the mockery, Calderón, a frequent critic of the president, said the government was too big for López Obrador.

“For me, the vest didn’t fit well,” he said, “but for others, it is the job that is too big.”

During Calderón’s 2006-2012 term as president, 102,859 murder investigations were opened, while there have been 17,164 cases opened in the first seven months of this year, according to the National Public Security System (SESNSP).

If the homicides continue at the same pace, there will have been 175,000 cases by the time López Obrador’s term ends.

Earlier this year, López Obrador accused past presidents of theft, a claim for which Calderón demanded proof.

Sources: Reforma (sp), El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp)