Mexico raises the tone and asks the US to clarify its role in the fall of Ismael ‘Mayo’ Zambada

The kidnapping of Ismael El Mayo Zambada and his transfer to the United States more than two years ago threatens to deepen the rift between Mexico and its northern neighbor over the actions of U.S. security agencies. The Mexican government, led by Claudia Sheinbaum, raised the tone on Tuesday and demanded that the White House clarify the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s involvement in Zambada’s abduction, a possibility it says would violate national and international law. This comes after the FBI recently reported that the plane in which El Mayo arrived in the U.S. is on display at a museum.

Mexico “requested information on several occasions” from the United States about the possible involvement of its agencies in this incident, Sheinbaum said. “Ken Salazar’s [then U.S. ambassador] response was that there had been no involvement. However, in recent days we learned from a news report that the plane in question is on display at a fair, and that the FBI claims credit for the operation. So the first question is, who is lying here? Salazar?” the president said, adding that the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs will formally request information from the FBI about what happened.

Sheinbaum’s morning press conference was devoted exclusively to this subject, which she herself has touched upon repeatedly in recent weeks, as it involves one of the most delicate issues of the bilateral agenda, at least on the Mexican side of the border: the presence of U.S. operatives on Mexican soil. The Zambada incident ties in with another one in April of this year, when Mexico discovered that CIA agents had died in an accident while dismantling a drug lab in Chihuahua.

Both countries are locked in a rhetorical battle over the ties between organized crime and government officials. U.S. President Donald Trump and other members of his cabinet often claim that Mexico is run by drug traffickers, and that the ties between organized crime and federal officials is undeniable. Sheinbaum always hits back with data on arrests and seizures. And now, the Mexican government says that the only people sitting at the same table as the criminals are, in fact, members of the U.S. administration. Following the arrest of one of the sons of El Chapo, Ovidio Guzmán, in January 2023 in Sinaloa, “a series of events took place,” said Sheinbaum. “So it begs the question, who is making deals with organized crime? We are never going to make deals with them.”

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