As reported in a previous article, on April 29th a U.S. federal court indicted ten Mexican officials and former officials, all from the state of Sinaloa, for involvement with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. There may be more indictments on the way.
The biggest fish in the kettle was Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya.
Of the ten indicted, two have already taken temporary leave of their positions: Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya and Juan de Dios Gamez Mendivil, Mayor of Culiacan (Sinaloa’s capital and largest city).
So what is President Claudia Sheinbaum going to do about all this? How will it affect the rest of her presidency?
What are Sheinbaum’s options?
Arrest all ten of these guys and send them to the United States?
Arrest all ten of these guys and try them in Mexico?
Don’t arrest or extradite any of them?
Actively defend them?
Arrest some of them but not all of them?
Hope it all just blows over?
There are risks for her with any option.
There are political risks in going against political allies and her political base. How about retaliation from narcos?
The national sovereignty argument is very strong in Mexico politics, especially regarding the United States. Sovereignty is a valuable argument for the politician of any country.
On the other hand, aren’t the drug cartels threats against Mexican sovereignty? How sovereign can a government be with these powerful cartels running rampant?
Thus far Sheinbaum has had a good relationship with U.S. President Trump. She has cooperated with the U.S. on security issues and in receiving back deported Mexicans.
At the same time, Trump and others have spoken about anti-cartel intervention in Mexico. Would the Trump administration plan a Venezuela-style capture of Ruben Rocha, for example?
What does the Mexican public think about all this?
As reported on May 1st by Whitney Eulich, Special Correspondent of The Monitor, “A rapid poll by Mexican pollster Massive Caller this week found that more than 70% of respondents believe Gov. Rocha Moya is guilty of narco-trafficking. Almost 80% said he should be extradited to the U.S.”
Still, Mexican political analyst David Saucedo points out that “When you ask Mexicans if they agree with U.S. intervention, they’re still against it.”
What about the political opposition?
On May 6th, a press conference was held by Ricardo Anaya Cortes of the PAN Party. Anaya is the party’s coordinator in the Mexican Senate.
Accompanied by other PANistas, Senator Anaya forcefully spoke about the situation. Anaya said that they already knew that Rocha was with the narcos, he should be detained and extradited to the U.S., and that Sheinbaum’s ruling MORENA party is a “narco partido” (narco-party).
Some excerpts (text available here): “We maintain that what we are living in Mexico today is an authentic tragedy. The reality is that today in Mexico a narco party rules. Today there is evidence, there are overwhelming proofs to maintain that MORENA has become a narco-party, the political arm of the drug cartels. What Rocha Moya is being accused of by U.S. authorities is the same thing that we ourselves have already pointed out in a complaint to the OEA in 2021…he [Rocha] and MORENA colluded with the narcos in Sinaloa before the election of 2021…the narcos helped Rocha Moya win the election. How did they help? By kidnapping opposition politicians , by kidnapping political operators of the opposition, permitting Rocha Moya to travel through the whole state and not permitting the opposition to enter territories controlled by organized crime.…once in office, he gave them protection, he gave them positions in the police and allowed the narco-traffickers to practice extortion and traffic drugs from the state of Sinaloa to the United States. We have denounced him for this since 2021.”
Wow!
In the question-answer phase, Anaya said this: “Our demand is that Rocha Moya be detained immediately so he can be extradited and judged, because we know that here in Mexico he will not be judged. They are not going to judge him for a basic reason, because the same thing that Rocha did many other MORENA governors and mayors did, because we know that if Rocha falls many others of MORENA will fall. That’s why Rocha must be extradited and judged in the U.S. Lamentably, that would be the ideal, but lamentably we already know that in Mexico they are going to cover it up, because MORENA and the Narco have become one and the same.”
Just imagine if Rocha is tried in the U.S. In order to lessen his sentence, he might share a lot of information about other Mexican politicians.
By the way, it’s not unprecedented for Mexican governors to be arrested. The administration of Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI party (2012-2018) arrested and imprisoned several governors for corruption and organized crime links, including governors of Pena Nieto’s own PRI party.
Even Sheinbaum’s own administration has prosecuted mayors of her own party. From The Monitor, “But even before President Donald Trump took office, the Sheinbaum government had launched Operation Swarm in November 2024, targeting cartel crime and political collusion at the municipal level. By February of this year, 60 people across six states had been arrested, including mayors and security officials from the ruling party.”
But what about these U.S. indictments of the Sinaloa gang?
On May 6th, Excelsior reported that President Sheinbaum confirmed that the SRE (Mexican Foreign Ministry) had sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. demanding formal evidence against Rocha Moya and the other 9 indicted by the U.S. court.
Is this a way to stall or does she have a definite plan in mind?
Stay tuned…
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