MEXICO CITY, April 27 (Reuters) – Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum said on Monday that the Mexican government told the United States through a diplomatic note that the unauthorized involvement of U.S. officials in an anti-drug operation in northern Chihuahua state should not be repeated.
On April 19, two U.S. officials and two Mexican officials died in a car crash following surgery. The presence of U.S. officials has reignited tensions over U.S.-Mexico security cooperation.
The fallout prompted Chihuahua state prosecutor Cesar Jauregui to resign late Monday, saying his version of events was inconsistent.
Sheinbaum said the federal government was unaware of the involvement of the U.S. officials, who sources described as CIA officers.
“What we are telling (the U.S.) is that the federal government is not aware of the circumstances of these individuals (involved in this operation) and we hope this is an exception,” Sheinbaum said at his daily morning news conference.
Mexico demands “adherence to our constitution and national security laws,” Scheinbaum said, adding that the United States had agreed.
The involvement of U.S. personnel in anti-cartel operations is a very sensitive issue in Mexico. Sheinbaum has long maintained that she welcomes intelligence sharing and security cooperation but will not accept the involvement of U.S. agents or troops in operations on Mexican soil.
In contrast, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for greater use of U.S. military power against Mexican cartels and has threatened to go it alone if Washington thinks Mexico is not doing enough.
conflicting information
Mexico’s security cabinet said in a statement on Saturday that the U.S. officials had no formal qualifications to participate in security activities in Mexico and that one of them entered the country as a tourist.
The day after the crash, Jauregui said the U.S. officials did not participate in the lab raid but were later picked up at another location by Mexican personnel involved in the operation. Jauregui said they were being transported to the state capital when the accident occurred.
However, Jauregui said on Monday that he had provided conflicting information, but he did not specify which details were incorrect.
“Concerning the incident involving an individual claiming to be a foreign official, there is an inconsistency between the information we initially had and the information I shared with the public,” he said in a statement from the Chihuahua attorney general’s office, which Jauregui read at a news conference.
“There were omissions both in information and in the institutional handling of points of contact with these individuals.” He added that he hoped his resignation would allow authorities to “restore public trust.”
(Reporting by Raul Cortes, additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Daina Beth Solomon; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Neil Fullick)
