MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that she’s 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 came after days of contradictions by 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 Associated Press 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,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing. She said that such activities aren’t part of the current security protocols or the formal understanding between Mexico and the United States.
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 drug cartels.
Later in the day, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said at a news conference that while Mexico’s federal government constantly exchanges information with the U.S., foreign “agents have never been in the field with us.”
Sheinbaum said that she sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador requesting that he provide all available information regarding the incident. She also said that she plans to speak with Chihuahua Gov. María Eugenia 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.”
David Klepper and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City, contributed to this report.
