2 days ago
Mexico's President Denies New D.E.A. Partnership Against Cartels
The news release from the Drug Enforcement Administration trumpeted a 'bold bilateral initiative' with the Mexican government to crack down on cartels that smuggle drugs across the southern border.
It was the sort of collaboration that both Mexico and the United States have called necessary and welcome to combat the powerful cartels, which have driven a wedge between the two nations.
But on Tuesday morning, a day after the D.E.A.'s announcement, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico opened her daily news conference by saying she had no idea what U.S. officials were talking about.
'I want to clarify something,' she said. 'There is no agreement with the D.E.A. The D.E.A. issues the statement, we don't know based on what. We haven't reached any agreement — none of the security institutions have — with the D.E.A.'
The D.E.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It appeared the news release was briefly taken offline shortly after her comments, but it was available again Tuesday morning.
The confusion was the latest public divergence between the Mexican and U.S. governments, amid an intense pressure campaign by the Trump administration to get Mexico to do more against cartels that has often left Ms. Sheinbaum on the defensive.
President Trump has repeatedly said Mexico must intensify the fight against cartels and curb the flow of fentanyl across the United States-Mexico border. Ms. Sheinbaum has said Mexico is doing just that, and indeed operations are up and fentanyl seizures at the border are down, according to officials in both countries.
Ms. Sheinbaum has said that some of that success has been the fruit of longstanding cooperation between Mexican and U.S. authorities. And she has repeatedly suggested, including on Tuesday, that the two countries are on the verge of significantly expanding their teamwork against cartels in a new security agreement that is being negotiated.
'This agreement is about to be signed, and it is fundamentally based on sovereignty, mutual trust, territorial respect — that is, that each nation operates in its own territory — and coordination without subordination,' she said on Tuesday.
This month, The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump had directed the Pentagon to explore military action against cartels his administration has declared terrorist organizations, most of which are in Mexico. That prompted another strong pushback from Ms. Sheinbaum.
'The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,' she said at the time. 'We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out.'
The contradiction this week may be the result of miscommunication and disagreement on how to frame the two nations' work together, as the Trump administration seeks to publicize its action against cartels while Ms. Sheinbaum's government tries to manage its image with a Mexican public wary of U.S. interventionism.
The D.E.A. announcement announced 'a major new initiative' to fight cartels with Mexico, centered around 'Project Portero, D.E.A.'s flagship operation aimed at dismantling cartel 'gatekeepers,' operatives who control the smuggling corridors along the southwest border.'
The D.E.A. said such 'gatekeepers' helped smuggle drugs into the United States and guns and cash into Mexico.
The agency said the project involved 'a multiweek training and collaboration program' in the United States that would bring together 'Mexican investigators with U.S. law enforcement, prosecutors, defense officials and members of the intelligence community' to 'identify joint targets, develop coordinated enforcement strategies and strengthen the exchange of intelligence.'
The release quoted the agency's administrator, Terrance Cole, as saying the project was 'a bold first step in a new era of cross-border enforcement, and we will pursue it relentlessly until these violent organizations are dismantled.'
Ms. Sheinbaum suggested that was overdoing it.
'The only thing is a group of police officers from the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection who were taking a workshop in Texas,' she said. 'That's all there is. There is nothing else. We do not know why they issued this statement.'
That group consisted of four officers, she said.
'The only thing we will always ask for is respect — always,' she added. 'So if you are going to share something regarding Mexico that's a security matter, all we ask is that it's done within the collaborative framework we have, and that it isn't inaccurate.'
