The presidents of Mexico and the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum and Donald Trump, held a “cordial and excellent” phone call this Friday, according to Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum indicated that during the conversation she defended Mexico’s security efforts amidst increasing pressure and accusations from the Trump administration for its southern neighbor to take action against narco-politics.
The two leaders had not spoken directly since Washington requested the arrest and extradition of 10 current and former officials of the Sinaloa state government, including Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, for alleged ties to drug cartels. This move was perceived in Mexico as unacceptable US interference in its internal affairs.
This Friday’s call opens the door to a de-escalation of tensions between the two countries, which are partners in numerous areas. Sheinbaum added that she also spoke with Trump about trade, given the ongoing negotiations to revise the trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada, the USMCA.
According to Sheinbaum, both leaders agreed to “speak again and continue the dialogue” with some US officials who will visit Mexico “in the near future.” The president posted a photo of the call on her social media account, in which she was accompanied by her Foreign Minister, Roberto Velasco.
As for Trump, the US president has returned from an official trip to China, where he held a high-level meeting with Xi Jinping, the leader of the Asian giant, to resolve a series of trade, technology, and geopolitical disputes that have accumulated in recent years.
Tensions between Mexico and the United States escalated in a matter of weeks due to security issues. Trump, in an open crusade against Mexican cartels, has demanded that Sheinbaum’s government take more decisive action on the matter, threatening that if it fails to do so, Washington will intervene—an ambiguous announcement that left the door open to direct intervention on Mexican soil. The US president himself declared that his administration was considering ground operations against drug cartels.
Mexico has condemned any act of foreign interference. This has been precisely the controversy of recent days, following the discovery that CIA agents operated in the state of Chihuahua without authorization from the federal government, a flagrant violation of the Mexican Constitution. Far from offering an explanation, as requested by Sheinbaum’s government, Washington upped the ante and issued a devastating challenge: the indictment of a governor from the ruling party for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.
While Mexico has demanded conclusive evidence from the US to prosecute Rubén Rocha, the Attorney General’s Office is accelerating an investigation against the governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos—of the opposition PAN party—for an alleged violation of the country’s sovereignty. Both cases have provided ammunition for the ruling party and the opposition to heat up the upcoming electoral contest leading up to the 2027 midterm elections. The United States is not uninvolved in this political game. According to Sheinbaum, as this newspaper has documented, Trump’s security pressures against Mexico are ploys by the president to gain popularity ahead of the US midterm elections this November.
