Mexico’s most controversial politician, Rubén Rocha, goes to ground as cartel questions intensify
The Security Cabinet says the on-leave governor is in Sinaloa despite the fact that no one has seen him in 19 days
No one has seen Rubén Rocha Moya since the night of May 1, when he announced in a video that he was requesting a leave of absence from the office of governor of Sinaloa. It was then a holiday, Labor Day, and the politician said he needed to stop working, as if in penance after U.S. authorities accused him and nine of his collaborators of alleged ties to factions of the Sinaloa cartel.
He is Mexico’s most controversial politician and the most wanted by the United States, but Rocha Moya chose to remain out of sight, leaving Sinaloa mired in a series of unprecedented crises. These range from a heavy blow to his party, Morena, ahead of the 2027 elections to demands from the state’s residents that he account for allegations of alleged corruption, bribery, and protection of cartel members, amid a wave of violence in the state due to a factional war within the Sinaloa Cartel.
“The governor is in Sinaloa,” Omar García Harfuch, the secretary of security for the federal government, said on Wednesday. “His location has not been classified; at the moment he is there in his state.” Harfuch said Rocha Moya does not have federal security escorts, but that his security circle is made up of state police because he retains the governorship despite his temporary leave of absence. Despite Harfuch’s remarks, there has been no public sighting of the politician in Sinaloa for 19 days.
“We want to know first where Rocha is because [the investigation] implies he is going to provide a lot of information. He needs to give clarity to citizens about why we are experiencing what we are experiencing, because he and the others [under suspicion] are the generators of the situation we are involved in,” said Martha Reyes, president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic in Sinaloa (Coparmex).
Reyes explained that Sinaloa is experiencing an economic crisis that has led to the loss of 20,000 jobs and the closure of at least 200 companies in a little more than a year and a half. Ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor’s have placed the state’s credit rating on “negative watch,” keeping its mxA rating. “We are becoming less attractive for investment,” Reyes said.
Rocha Moya left his administration with long-term debt of more than 4.7 billion pesos ($271.6 million). His bet was a public works plan intended to spur the state’s recovery. According to a comparison of contract awards published on the Compranet procurement site by civil organizations such as Iniciativa Sinaloa, only eight business groups have benefited from those funds.
Marlene Fontes León, director of this citizen observatory, says Rocha Moya must come forward. “We want to know where he is so he can be held accountable and clarify to the population that elected him not only the U.S. accusations but also other allegations of illicit enrichment by some of his officials, possible corruption, and even his frozen accounts,” the activist said, suggesting a public appearance before the local Congress.
Sinaloa’s crisis is not limited to the economic or the political. Over the past 20 months the state has experienced the worst security situation in its history. The attorney general’s office reports at least 2,828 murders, 3,671 disappearances, nearly 15,000 violent vehicle thefts and the fracture of two criminal groups within the Sinaloa Cartel: La Mayiza, loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and Los Chapitos, led by the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. According to an indictment from the U.S. Southern District of New York, the latter were sponsored by and associated with Rocha Moya and at least nine collaborators and former collaborators.
The governor of Sinaloa is now the country’s most wanted politician, so much so that his absence has sparked a flurry of theories as to his whereabouts. Proceso magazine reported that until a few days ago he was living in the state’s Government Palace. Political analysts also say he resided inside the rooftop hall of the building, built in 2012 as a reception area for those who arrive via the helipad. Others say the politician is holed up in Batequitas, in the municipality of Badiraguato, on the ranch where he was born. Some accounts claim they saw him enter the Ninth Military Zone in Culiacán, the state capital, with a large security detail. More conservative voices maintain that he is at his home in the Tres Ríos residential development.
“The last time I spoke with him was when he requested leave,” said Yeraldine Bonilla Valverde, interim governor of Sinaloa. No one has seen him, or at least that is the view even within his party and in the federal government.
“Now really, why me?” said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, secretary of the interior, when asked in Mexico City by a reporter about Rocha Moya’s whereabouts, who reminded the official that she is responsible for the country’s domestic policy.
Rocha Moya’s absence has left a void. It has been filled with stories and claims that have not been verified. The only thing known for certain is that the accusations were enough for the governor to request leave. He was followed by Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, the mayor of Culiacán, another person implicated. Morena senator Enrique Inzunza Cázarez, who is named in the allegations, has not emerged from hiding and has not attended Congress sessions to avoid — according to his posts on X — the “conservative right.” The Financial Intelligence Unit has investigated the accounts of those involved. Deputy attorney Dámaso Castro Zaavedra was removed from his post, and former local government collaborators Gerardo Mérida Sánchez and Enrique Díaz Vega turned themselves in to face trials in the United States.
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