Mexico’s Sheinbaum defies Trump, defends drug trafficking suspects

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appears to be placing her political party over justice, and drug cartels over her nation’s relationship with the U.S. Doubts regarding the extradition of Sinaloa’s governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, have been replaced by a defiant narrative emphasizing national sovereignty and lack of evidence regarding his connections to drug traffickers. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Drug Enforcement Administration announced indictments against Rocha, Sen. Enrique Inzunza, Culiacán Mayor Juan de Dios Gámez and seven other current and former Mexican officials for allegedly conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel to import massive quantities of drugs into the U.S. in exchange for political support and bribes. During President Trump’s first administration, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mocked the then-newcomer to the White House. In 2020, when the U.S. arrested former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos on charges linked to drug trafficking, Lopez Obrador demanded he be handed over so that he could be tried under Mexico’s sovereign jurisdiction. The outcome was exactly as expected: In less than a year, Cienfuegos was a free man, enjoying the Mexican government’s policy of “hugs, not bullets“. Those days are now a thing of the past. Sheinbaum is not López Obrador, and the Trump of 2026 is not the same as the Trump of 2020. The capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela demonstrated through concrete actions that Trump’s commitment to the fight against narco-governments is unwavering. Under the new administration, Mexico has handed over, captured or eliminated more than 90 suspected drug kingpins — including Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho,” and Rafael Caro Quintero, the man behind the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, wanted by the U.S. since the Reagan era. Although Mexico attempts to downplay U.S. accusations against drug traffickers linked to the ruling Morena party, the new U.S. National Drug Control Strategy mentions — on some 20 occasions — that this is a matter of war in which the U.S. will employ “all available diplomatic, intelligence, military, and economic tools.” The new strategy also states that assistance to the Mexican government in the fight against drugs will be conditioned upon tangible results, including taking appropriate measures to arrest, prosecute and extradite leaders of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and to dismantle synthetic drug laboratories. Given the gravity of the issue, Sheinbaum has sought to sell the idea that the cases against current and former officials of Morena are merely political in nature. The Mexican government not only refuses to hand over corrupt officials with suspected links to drug trafficking but also attacks those who cooperate with the U.S. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office announced that it intends to investigate 50 individuals who participated in an anti-drug operation supported by the CIA in Chihuahua last month. Another grave error committed by the Mexican government has been to respond to the U.S. by delaying the handover of Audias Flores — also known as El Jardinero — a powerful drug lord from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Sheinbaum, it appears, is looking to test her strength against the U.S. This new bombshell is a snapshot of the politics and modus operandi of today’s Mexican government. High-ranking officials stand accused of making deals with drug cartels to win elections, intimidate or bribe adversaries or just sell the public a false but reassuring image of normality. As Trump himself put it, it constitutes an utterly intolerable alliance with drug trafficking networks. The underlying problem, the whole enchilada, is not Mexico’s sovereignty, the so-called lack of evidence, the extradition process or some legal timeline. The core issue is that handing over these drug traffickers amounts to handing over the Morena Party itself — and, by extension, collapsing the entire ecosystem that sustains the current Mexican government. That is why Sheinbaum defends these alleged narco-politicians and is even willing to defy Trump. It is not a matter of national sovereignty, but of political survival. Arturo McFields is an exiled journalist, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States, and a former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps. He is an alumnus of the National Defense University’s Security and Defense Seminar and the Harvard Leadership course.