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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that she is considering possible sanctions against the government of Chihuahua — a state bordering Texas — for allowing CIA agents to participate in an operation to dismantle drug laboratories because any security collaboration with the U.S. should be approved by Mexico’s federal government.
Sheinbaum’s comments come after days of contradictions of several authorities following the death of two U.S. officials in a vehicle crash over the weekend as they returned from destroying a clandestine drug lab in northern Mexico. The CIA’s involvement was confirmed Tuesday to the AP by a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
“There cannot be agents from any U.S. government institution operating in the Mexican field,” the president stated during her morning news briefing. She noted that such activities are not part of the current security protocols or the formal understanding between the two nations.
Two Mexican investigators also were killed in the crash, which Mexican authorities said occurred while the convoy was returning from an operation to destroy drug labs of criminal groups. There have been discrepancies in the public accounts of what happened from U.S. and Mexican officials, which experts say underscores heightened U.S. involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.
Sheinbaum acknowledged Wednesday that the Mexican army participated in the operation — as its mandate includes supporting individual states. However, she emphasized that the federal government was unaware of the U.S. agents’ presence.
Sheinbaum ruled out the possibility that the incident constitutes a new strategy by the Trump administration — which has demanded greater action from Mexico in the fight against cartels.
However, she said she sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador to Mexico requesting that he provide all available information regarding the incident. She also said she plans to speak with the Gov. of Chihuahua, Maru Campos. “It is very important that something like this not be allowed to go unaddressed,” she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed to take action on Mexican cartels — an intervention that Sheinbaum has said is “unnecessary.”
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Associated Press writers David Klepper and Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
