Two US embassy “instructors” killed when the vehicle carrying them plummeted down a mountain ravine in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state on April 19 were actually CIA officers, according to a Washington Post report citing anonymous sources. The revelation contradicts initial denials by Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui that there was “any involvement of any foreign agent” in the raid on a methamphetamine lab raid in the remote southwestern corner of the state. The names of the two US personnel have not been revealed, but Chihuahua State Investigations Agency (AEI) director Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes and one of his agents were also killed in the crash that took place during the operation at the hamlet of El Pinal, Morelos municipality. (El Paso Times)
President Claudia Sheinbaum said after the revelation of apparent CIA involvement that she is considering sanctions against the government of Chihuahua, asserting that any security collaboration with the US must be approved by Mexico’s federal government. She is meanwhile demanding a meeting to discuss the matter with the governor of Chihuahua, María Eugenia Campos Galván of the right-wing opposition National Action Party (PAN).
Mexico’s Senate Commission on Constitutional Issues is attempting to broker a dialogue between Chihuahua and federal authorities on the question. But lawmakers from Sheinbaum’s leftist MORENA party accused Campos and the PAN of “betraying the homeland and the Mexican people” by concealing the CIA presence in Chihuahua. (CBS News, Animal Político, El Arensal, NACLA Update, Diario Red, La Verdad, La Verdad, Juárez)
The Washington Post reports that under CIA director John Ratcliffe, “the agency has taken a larger, more aggressive role in counternarcotics, one of Trump’s top priorities upon assuming office. The agency has shared more intelligence with Mexican antidrug units and increased training for local counternarcotics units… It has flown unarmed drones over Mexico to help track cartel leaders and locate illicit drug labs.”
CIA intelligence was apparently critical in the operation by Mexican federal forces in which Jalisco New Generation Cartel kingpin Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes AKA “El Mencho” was killed earlier this year.
Photo: AEI via CBS News
More reports of CIA ops in Mexico
CNN reported May 12 that the explosion of a pickup truck in March on the outskirts of Mexico City, which killed alleged Sinaloa Cartel trafficker Francisco Beltrán AKA “El Payin” and his driver, was actually a targeted assassination involving the CIA. The report claimed that Beltrán’s killing was part of a wider CIA campaign to dismantle cartels in Mexico. While Presdient Sheinbaum has acknowledged the sharing of intelligence with the United States, she has forcefully rejected the possibility of US troops operating on Mexican soil, as she did again May 13 when she denied the reports that the CIA had helped Mexican officials in this operation—as did the CIA itself. CNN has stuck by its reporting and the New York Times also tied the explosion to the CIA, though it reported they were not on the ground. It is not entirely clear, however, whether the Mexican government is trying to save face, or if the Trump administration is trying to force Sheinbaum into an uncomfortable position. (NACLA Update)