{"id":641500,"date":"2026-05-13T22:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/641500\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:59:08","slug":"cartel-corruption-claims-push-us-mexico-relations-to-breaking-point-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/641500\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartel corruption claims push US-Mexico relations to breaking point | Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relations between Mexico<\/a> and the United States are being pushed to breaking point amid accusations by Washington that Mexican officials have been \u201cin bed for years\u201d with drug traffickers, and reports of CIA agents freely operating south of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many who are betting on the defeat and failure of the Mexican government,\u201d said Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a> tersely on Wednesday, when asked about the allegations at a news conference. \u201dWe want a good relationship with the United States government. What are our limits? The defence of sovereignty and respect for the Mexican people and their dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum\u2019s comments follow inflammatory testimony from Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) director Terry Cole before the US Senate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the narco traffickers and high-ranking government officials in Mexico have been in bed for years,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThey are just as much responsible for the death and destruction of record amounts of Americans by cooperating, by conspiring, by helping, producing this poison to come across the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico has been under intense pressure from Washington for months to tackle drug trafficking groups, with President Donald Trump<\/a> repeatedly threatening to send troops south of the border. But in recent weeks, that pressure has intensified, pushing Sheinbaum into a delicate balancing act between trying to appease her party and mollify an increasingly hawkish White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most tense, the most difficult situation since at least the 1980s,\u201d said former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Casta\u00f1eda. \u201cWe\u2019re in a moment the likes of which we have never seen, at least not in my memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

DEA director Terry Cole claimed \u2018narco traffickers and high-ranking government officials in Mexico have been in bed for years\u2019. Photograph: Win McNamee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s constant threats, Sheinbaum had kept a calm demeanor for months \u2013 denying that there would be any kind of US presence in Mexico even as she repeatedly bowed to Washington\u2019s wishes. In the last year, the Mexican government has transferred nearly 100 cartel members<\/a> to face justice in the US.<\/p>\n

When Mexico, with the support of US intelligence, killed the leader of the country\u2019s most powerful cartel in February,<\/a> American officials celebrated, with deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau calling it<\/a> a \u201cgreat development\u201d.<\/p>\n

But relations began to fray last month when reports emerged<\/a> that several CIA agents had been involved in a raid on a drug lab in northern Mexico, apparently without approval or prior knowledge from the federal government, potentially violating the country\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

Then, the US justice department charged the governor<\/a> of Sinaloa, Rub\u00e9n Rocha Moya, and nine other current and former Mexican officials for alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel, accusing them of aiding in the massive importation of illicit drugs into the United States.<\/p>\n

The indictment of a high-ranking member of Sheinbaum\u2019s Morena party with almost no prior warning came as a slap in the face to the Mexican leader. Rather than handing him over, however, Sheinbaum closed ranks, arguing that Washington had failed to produce meaningful evidence.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not allow any foreign government to come and decide the future of the Mexican people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There was an outbreak of violence earlier this year when the Mexican drug lord \u2018El Mencho\u2019 was killed in a military operation. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

But last week, US acting attorney general Todd Blanche said there would be more charges<\/a> against Mexican officials for links to cartels. The threat was made even more explicit on Tuesday when DEA director Cole said that Rocha\u2019s indictment was \u201cjust the start about [sic] what\u2019s to come in Mexico\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amid the flurry of collusion allegations, Sheinbaum is being increasingly backed into a corner, analysts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico has to be constantly on the defensive,\u201d said Jes\u00fas P\u00e9rez Caballero, an expert on US-Mexico relations at the College of the Northern Border. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for it to establish a counter-narrative that aligns with Mexico\u2019s interests if it constantly has to respond to these accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on Tuesday, CNN published<\/a> an explosive report alleging that the CIA had intensified covert operations in Mexico through the agency\u2019s Ground Branch unit. According to CNN, the CIA \u201cfacilitated\u201d the March assassination of a mid-level cartel member who was killed when a bomb exploded in his car, during the day, on one of the country\u2019s busiest highways.<\/p>\n

CNN also said that the CIA had been involved in multiple \u201cdeadly attacks\u201d on cartel members since last year.<\/p>\n

The report followed comments from Trump last week that a \u201cland force\u201d was already operating in Mexico.<\/p>\n

The US, Mexico and Canada are jointly hosting the Fifa World Cup this summer. Photograph: H\u00e9ctor Vivas\/FIFA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll hear some complaints from \u2026 representatives from Mexico and other places,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut if they\u2019re not going to do the job, then we\u2019re going to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum, however, was emphatic in her rejection of CNN\u2019s reporting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s false that CIA agents operate in our territory,\u201d she said during a news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s a fiction about the size of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, for all her bravura, it is likely that Sheinbaum will have to cave into America\u2019s demands eventually: Mexico\u2019s intimate relationship with the US, particularly on the economic front, leaves the Mexican leader with little wriggle room.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a problem with the United States that is unsolvable,\u201d said Casta\u00f1eda. \u201cShe has to hand over Rocha, and the others they ask for. Period. There is no alternative. There is no possibility that she won\u2019t do so without an enormous cost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Relations between Mexico and the United States are being pushed to breaking point amid accusations by Washington that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-641500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}