Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has revealed that her US counterpart, Donald Trump, called her on Monday to ask for details of the operation that resulted in the death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. In the call, which lasted only about eight minutes, the two leaders discussed the situation in Mexico after the drug lord’s death—at that time, there were still blockades on dozens of highways orchestrated by the cartel—and the intelligence collaboration provided by Washington, according to Sheinbaum. The president has stated, once again, that Mexico deserves credit for the operation, contrary to what Trump said Tuesday night during his State of the Union address, in which he claimed that the US had “eliminated” El Mencho.
“He called me the day before yesterday, an eight-minute call, to ask me what was happening in Mexico, how things were,” Sheinbaum said during her daily press conference at the National Palace. “I also told him about the operation, that we had received intelligence assistance from the U.S. government, and that the coordination was going very well. And that was it, ‘Oh, well, thank you very much, see you, take care.’ That was the call, short, just to see how things were in Mexico,” she explained. The president has ruled out further calls and even personal meetings with the U.S. president for the time being, but she highlighted the high-level meeting held on Tuesday—two days after the killing of El Mencho—between security officials from both countries in the Mexican capital.
Regarding Trump’s assertion that the U.S. was responsible for the operation against the CJNG, Sheinbaum clarified that Washington’s role was solely in providing information. “We have already explained the nature of the collaboration, which was essentially in intelligence and information sharing, and the entire operation was carried out by the Ministry of National Defense, as we have duly reported here,” he emphasized. “And well, we know President Trump,” he commented, referring to the political undertones of the statement within the context of U.S. politics. “But the information we have provided is correct,” he concluded.
