A few days ago, the “big story” in Mexico was the death of two CIA agents in Chihuahua, and the clear, illegal cooperation of the Chihuahua government, which is led by Governor Maru Campos, a member of the right-wing PAN party. The Attorney General of Chihuahua stepped aside, and it was looking like a pretty serious scandal.
Then, with the usual timing of the Trump DOJ — suspicious — with a document that’s the usual quality of the Trump DOJ — incomplete — the DOJ announced the indictment of Sinaloa Governor Reuben Rocha Moya and 10 others for allegedly cooperating with cartels and promising favors in return for election interference. The indictment is mainly based on the accusations of cooperating witnesses who are under arrest in the US and referred to as “Los Chapitos”. It has very little hard evidence, which is a big deal in Mexico, which generally doesn’t build cases based mostly on cooperating witnesses. Moya has since stepped down temporarily.
Based on the indictment, the DOJ requested extradition of Moya and the others. Here’s a summary of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s response:
In response to U.S. Department of Justice calls for the extradition of some leading political figures in Sinaloa, President Claudia Sheinbaum was unequivocal in defense of “truth, justice, and the defense of sovereignty.” Extradition requests will be reviewed in accordance with Mexican law and a clear principle, that without evidence, there is no indictment. If evidence exists, action will be taken under national jurisdiction; if not, the matter is political in nature, and no foreign interference or external pressure will be permitted.
At a Cinco de Mayo celebration, which commemorates the Mexican victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, Claudia re-iterated that “No foreign. power is going to tell us to govern ourselves.”
One of the right-wing media tropes is that Claudia and Morena are running a narco government. Of course, the US government has a track record of caring about narco governments when it’s convenient, since Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been convicted in US courts of drug trafficking after an investigation begun in the first Trump administration. Joe sent me a link to this piece in MSN about “Hondurasgate”, the revelation that Hernández had been caught on tape plotting a media campaign to spread disinformation about the Mexican and Columbian governments. Here’s some more detail from another source:
Buenos Aires. Argentine President Javier Milei allegedly contributed $350,000 to form a regional communications team to launch a media campaign against the presidents of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, according to audio recordings of a conversation between former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and current Honduran authorities, which caused a strong reaction in Argentina.
The audios “from WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, are part of a detailed journalistic investigation published in Diario Red América Latina, directed by the Spaniard Pablo Iglesias (based in Mexico) and the Hondurasgate portal,” says the newspaper Página 12.
Hernández was arrested for drug trafficking in the United States in 2024, sentenced to 24 years in prison and pardoned by President Donald Trump, despite being one of the most important drug kingpins in the region.
In one of the audio recordings, Hernández stated that “as part of that group or ‘continental entity,’ Milei’s role is important because he contributes thousands of dollars to the construction of those fake news sources. We are going to set up a cell, President (of Honduras, Nasry Asfura). From here, from the United States, so that they can’t track us there in Honduras. It’s going to be like a Latin American news site,” the newspaper highlighted.
The next move by the US against Mexico was the announcement of a “review” of the 53 Mexican consulates in the US.
Mexico has the largest foreign consular network in the United States, with offices that provide documentation and legal assistance to millions of Mexican citizens living throughout the country. Most are concentrated in border states and cities with large Mexican-American populations, such as California, Texas, and Arizona.
According to CBS News, in recent years, the closure of US consulates has generally reflected increased tensions with rival countries, rather than routine diplomatic changes.
In 2020, amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing , the Donald Trump administration ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, citing concerns about espionage and intellectual property theft.
In 2017, the United States ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco, along with diplomatic facilities in Washington and New York, in response to Moscow’s expulsion of US diplomats.
Treating one of our best allies as we would Beijing and Moscow is a yet another sign of disrespect from the Trump Administration. All of this fuckery has at least two goals: first, to advance right-wing causes in Latin America, and, second, to bully Mexico as the next Mexican/US/Canadian free trade agreement is being negotiated. Since Rubio is fixated on invading Cuba (what a disaster that would be), part of this offensive is an effort to make Mexico’s support of Cuba as painful as possible. Interestingly enough, the newly named head of the Morena Party, Ariadna Monteil, expressed her solidarity with Cuba in her first official speech.
One interesting sidelight to all this: the right-wing mayor of Barcelona had to cut short her visit to Mexico:
Even before arriving, Díaz Ayuso had irritated many Mexicans by defending the Conquest as a civilizing process. As a result, Monday’s tribute to Cortés was forced to change venues when the Mexico City Archdiocese said it would not allow the event to take place at the Metropolitan Cathedral. The reason given was that permits were not in order, but the Archdiocese also went to great lengths to distance itself from the tribute to Cortés.
LOL at the Catholics not wanting to touch her with a 10-foot pole.
