The U.S. is investigating two extra Mexican governors for connections to cartels
Cybersecurity expert
MEXICO CITY — The U.S. is investigating two prominent Mexican governors, extra than one sources said, because the Trump administration expands its marketing campaign against excessive-stage Mexican officials suspected of ties to organized crime.
The dash against sitting government officials threatens to undermine Mexico’s ruling birthday celebration — which came to power on a promise to fight corruption — and extra stress the already irritating relationship between the two international locations.
For years, the U.S. refrained from investigating sitting politicians in its fight against drug trafficking, preferring to residence cartel leaders. But as heaps of Mexico’s most notorious drug traffickers had been killed, arrested or be pleased grew to became themselves in, Washington has shifted its attention to prosecuting elected leaders and law enforcement brokers suspected of involvement in organized crime.
Alfonso Durazo, the governor of Sonora, and Américo Villarreal Anaya, the governor of Tamaulipas, be pleased both been stripped of their U.S. visas amid felony probes, in line with other folks mindful of the cases.
Each and every are members of Mexico’s ruling Morena birthday celebration and allies of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has criticized a up-to-the-minute spate of U.S. investigations into sitting Mexican leaders as electoral interference and a violation of her country’s sovereignty.
In April, the Justice Department published sweeping felony charges against prominent members of Sheinbaum’s birthday celebration, in conjunction with Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya of Sinaloa. He used to be accused in conjunction with 9 other most modern and extinct officials of serving to the Sinaloa cartel smuggle fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S. in exchange for millions of greenbacks in bribes and relieve winning elections.
On Wednesday, Sheinbaum reacted to The Times’ file on Durazo and Villarreal, which posted on-line that morning, by accusing the U.S. of meddling in Mexican inner affairs.
Talking at her on daily foundation news convention, Sheinbaum said it used to be up to the governors to answer to the allegations against them. She also questioned the motive of the U.S. investigations.
“What’s the intent in the support of revoking the visas, and, furthermore, making that data public?” she requested. “What’s the underlying motive?”
At a political rally days earlier, she struck a a similar tone when questioning the indictment of Rocha Moya.
“Is it if truth be told a real curiosity to fight organized crime?” Sheinbaum requested. “Or are we probably witnessing how sectors of the American a long way correct are the employ of our country to web site themselves for his or her 2026 elections? Or build they intend to affect the 2027 election in our country?”
Durazo, 71, the governor of the border bid of Sonora, is one in every of the most realistic doubtless-profile leaders so a long way believed to be below investigation. He previously served as Mexico’s security minister, serving to place in pressure extinct President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s controversial “hugs, no longer bullets” approach, which emphasized addressing the foundation causes of crime over militia incompatibility. Sonora is a significant drug trafficking transit path to the U.S.
Other folks familiar along with his case, who spoke on condition of anonymity to focus on inner matters, said Durazo’s visa used to be canceled closing 365 days, and the U.S. is investigating him for alleged ties to organized crime.
Durazo, talking to journalists on Wednesday, said his visa has no longer been revoked, he’s no longer mindful of an investigation into his actions and has dedicated no wrongdoing. He said he’s so suitable “I practically sweat holy water.”
Durazo blamed the file on “a deliberate effort to politically undermine a progressive mission,” in other phrases, Morena’s leftist agenda.
“I preserve a real visa, I’m no longer complicit with felony groups, and I build no longer be pleased a dedication to collaborate with any foreign places country,” he said.
Alfonso Durazo, correct, then Mexico’s secretary of public security, looks at a news convention with then President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City in 2019. He has been a conclude ally of López Obrador.
In step with the sources with data of the investigation into Durazo, the governor travels to the U.S. incessantly to obtain if truth be told expert treatment for a medical condition below a parole program veritably reserved for folk who’re cooperating with law enforcement.
This system, identified as Principal Public Profit parole, permits non-electorate to testify sooner than a huge jury to mitigate consequences of actual or pending charges against them or others.
“It’s if truth be told meant to be vulnerable as a tool to obtain intelligence and originate evidence,” Vanda Brown of the Brookings Establishment said of this system. Mexican journalist Luis Chaparro previously reported that Durazo had lost his visa thanks to a U.S. investigation and used to be a recipient of parole. A usual tourist visa for the U.S. lasts up to 10 years with a possibility of renewal.
The investigation into Villarreal, 68, is connected to the smuggling of pirated gas, a lucrative unlawful exchange identified in Mexico as huachicol, in line with other folks mindful of the case. The sources said Villarreal also has Principal Public Profit parole. When he crosses into the United States he’s in most cases escorted by U.S. officials, said one particular person familiar along with his case.
In a assertion, Villarreal denied any wrongdoing, calling the claims unfounded, biased and missing evidence. He said that, as a public servant, he has continuously been transparent, accountable and adopted the law.
Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, is a hub for gas smuggling to and from the United States. A pair of previous governors had been investigated in Mexico for connections to felony groups,
The unusual revelations are seemingly to exacerbate stress on Morena, whose founder, López Obrador, rose to power on a promise to fight corruption, which he said fueled violence. He vowed that no-one interested in corruption could presumably per chance presumably be spared, even “brothers-in-palms.”
Sheinbaum, López Obrador’s political protege, has vowed to proceed that fight, and her administration has arrested dozens of local officials accused of wrongdoing, in conjunction with some affiliated with Morena.
Some members of her birthday celebration be pleased pushed Sheinbaum to reduce ties with Rocha Moya and other leaders suspected of hyperlinks to organized crime, lest Morena be tainted by the allegations. But Sheinbaum has as a exchange closed ranks, insisting her government is no longer going to conform with the U.S. put a question to that it extradite Rocha Moya.
At a rally over the weekend, Sheinbaum brushed apart the U.S. investigation into Sinaloa officials as a politically motivated smear marketing campaign against her leftist government.
Ronald Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, criticized her comments. “The fight against cartels could presumably per chance presumably additionally restful unite us, no longer divide us,” Johnson wrote on X. “Each and every 2d spent turning this shared security peril into a political dispute is a overlooked various to present a enhance to our partnership and give protection to the opposite folks we relieve.”
The escalating rhetoric comes at a major 2d for the two international locations, which subsequent month will embark on a evaluate of their free exchange agreement with Canada.
Over time, U.S. prosecutors be pleased every so often introduced corruption cases against extinct Mexican officials, in conjunction with Genaro García Luna, a extinct security minister who used to be sentenced to jail in 2024 for taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
But targeting most modern elected leaders is a brand unusual — and extra confrontational — reach. Contributors of the Trump administration whisper it is serious since the drug exchange is dependent closely on the officials who give protection to it.
At a meeting in Could well, Department of Hometown Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested Sheinbaum that the Trump administration expects Mexico to ship Rocha Moya to the U.S., in line with sources.
Sheinbaum said her administration will make a resolution the governor’s destiny based by itself evaluate of his conduct, and warned Mullin that extra U.S. indictments against elected leaders could presumably per chance presumably be regarded as political interference in Mexico’s affairs.
Sheinbaum could presumably per chance presumably additionally decide to prosecute Rocha Moya, which would signal to her sinful that she takes corruption seriously, nonetheless isn’t willing to bow to U.S. stress.
U.S. officials, even though, be pleased minute religion that Rocha Moya or other politicians will be convicted in Mexican courts.
Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, in 2016 photo, once served as Mexico’s defense minister. He used to be arrested in Los Angeles in 2020 on drug-trafficking charges and used to be released to the Mexican government, which later exonerated him.
(Linked Press)
They sing extinct Protection Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, who used to be arrested on U.S. drug-trafficking charges in Los Angeles in 2020, and used to be released to Mexico after López Obrador vowed to enact an investigation. Now not up to 2 months later, the Mexican government exonerated Cienfuegos. Later, López Obrador awarded him a high militia honor.
Trump has made combating Latin American drug cartels a signature foreign places policy precedence, taking a maximalist reach that has included declaring gangs terrorist organizations, blowing up alleged drug boats at sea, and authorizing U.S. militia strikes in Ecuador and Guatemala.
Trump has many cases threatened strikes against cartel targets in Mexico, which Sheinbaum says Mexico would take hang of into consideration an act of war. She has decried revelations of the most modern participation of CIA officials in a raid on a drug lab in northern Chihuahua bid, asserting it used to be a breach of sovereignty.
The cancellation of visas is a quieter, nonetheless doubtlessly highly efficient approach.
Closing 365 days, Reuters reported that the U.S. had, without fanfare, revoked the visas of at least 50 politicians and officials in Mexico, despite the proven truth that few be pleased publicly confirmed they lost visas.
The U.S. National Counterterrorism Heart has taken the lead in canceling visas, sources suggested the Times. The heart, a piece of the Directorate of National Intelligence, now focuses extra on the cartels which had been designated as terrorist groups and the politicians allegedly colluding with them than on capability threats from the Heart East, sources said.
Sources mindful of the unusual approach said no longer all U.S. law enforcement companies are on board with extra visa cancellations, which they are saying can veritably intrude with felony investigations.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has many cases rejected President Trump’s offers to deploy the U.S. militia against cartel targets in Mexico, asserting such circulate would violate Mexican sovereignty.
(Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Photos)
Contained in the Sheinbaum administration, the indictment of Rocha Moya has led to an anxious parlor sport of guessing which Mexican officials will be indicted subsequent, other folks mindful of the matter said.
The targeting of officials comes as Sheinbaum looks to be like toward midterm elections in 2027, where the total lower chamber of the Mexican congress — where her birthday celebration for the time being holds the majority — is at play, in conjunction with 17 bid governorships. She must resolve candidates to endorse carefully, political analysts said, because touting gubernatorial candidates that could presumably per chance presumably additionally find yourself centered by U.S. law enforcement could presumably per chance presumably additionally throw the election into disarray and threaten the birthday celebration’s majority.
Privately, Sheinbaum has informed members of Morena to resign in the occasion that they are interested in corruption. Publicly, she has taken a defiant stance in the face of U.S. allegations that Mexico is “managed” by cartels. On Tuesday, she spoke back to Ambassador Johnson, asking that he chorus from commenting on Mexico’s home complications.
“Mexico’s affairs belong to Mexicans,” she said.
This text used to be co-printed with Puente Files Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers tales from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border. Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in the Times’ Mexico City bureau contributed to this file.
