(AFP) – Mexico said Tuesday it is investigating whether its sovereignty was violated by the United States in the 2024 capture of drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in the latest flareup of diplomatic tensions over Washington’s war on cartels. The inquiry comes after the FBI displayed in an exhibition the plane used to bring most-wanted Zambada, co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, to the United States.
“If one of the US agencies participated in this operation, they would be violating international treaties and the (Mexican) constitution,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference. Zambada was arrested in the United States in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is also imprisoned. When Guzman Lopez pled guilty to US narcotrafficking charges last December, he admitted to having kidnapped Zambada to bring him to the United States—a betrayal meant to win favor with US authorities.
The US Embassy in Mexico said in 2024 that no US agency had participated in the operation, Mexican government secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez told the morning news conference. “The versions are contradictory. Someone lied,” she said. The war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel unleashed after the arrest of Zambada has left thousands dead and disappeared. Trump has repeatedly said that drug cartels control Mexico, warning he will use boots on the ground south of the border if Sheinbaum doesn’t crack down on criminal gangs.
Sheinbaum has downplayed the threats, emphasizing that Mexican soldiers use US intelligence to track down narcotraffickers—as with the killing of cartel boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera in a raid in February. In April, two CIA agents died in unclear circumstances during an anti-drug operation alongside soldiers and state police in the border state of Chihuahua—without apparent authorization from Mexico’s federal government. Sheinbaum’s administration opened an investigation, still ongoing, into whether the presence of the agents represented a violation of national security laws, creating fresh diplomatic friction.
Days later, the US Justice Department indicted the then-governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, as well as nine other current and former officials, on drug charges. Rocha Moya is a member of Sheinbaum’s ruling left-leaning Morena party—and a close ally of her mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Sheinbaum responded to the indictments by requesting the US provide “irrefutable” evidence against Rocha Moya before potentially extraditing him.
In May, a CNN investigation alleged that CIA operatives used a car bomb to carry out a “targeted assassination” in March of a mid-level cartel operative outside Mexico City. The CIA and Sheinbaum denied the story. “Imagine how big the lie is if the CIA itself needs to come out and dismiss” the story, the left-leaning leader said.
© 2024 AFP
