LeBaron massacre was not an act of terrorism, Sheinbaum says: Friday’s mañanera recapped

This Saturday, the United States will impose a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian exports, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.

United States President Donald Trump said Thursday that the tariffs were coming because Mexico and Canada have allowed migrants and drugs to enter the U.S., and because the U.S. has large trade deficits with those two countries.

At her Friday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her government was prepared for whatever decision the Trump administration made with regard to tariffs, while Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard highlighted the negative effect the duties would have on consumers in the United States. (Read Mexico News Daily’s report on their remarks here.)

In addition to tariffs, Sheinbaum spoke about a range of other issues at her Friday mañanera, including a judge’s ruling in relation to a 2019 massacre in the northern border state of Sonora.

Sheinbaum disagrees with terrorism designation of 2019 massacre of 9 Mexican-US citizens 

A reporter noted that a federal judge earlier this month directed the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to investigate the 2019 massacre of three women and six children in northern Mexico as an act of terrorism.

The victims, members of the extended LeBaron family, were ambushed by alleged cartel gunmen in Sonora on Nov. 4, 2019. La Linea, a faction of the Juárez Cartel, is alleged to have killed the women and children, members of an American Mexican Mormon family.

Sheinbaum said that her government didn’t agree with the judge’s determination that the massacre was an act of terrorism.

“Of course we have to work permanently against criminal groups, but, as the security minister and the defense minister have explained here, the connotation of terrorism is different,” she said.

The reporter asked Sheinbaum whether the terrorism designation by the judge was an “act of justice” for the families who lost loved ones in late 2019.

“Justice is being served,” she said. “… A lot of people have been arrested in connection with this criminal act and [there is] comprehensive justice for the families,” the president said.

The federal judge’s directive for the FGR to investigate the attack as an act of terrorism came just days before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order “Designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.”

The Trump administration’s designation of specific Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations could occur as soon as next week.

After the 2019 massacre of the women and children in Sonora, President Trump said on Twitter (now X) that the United States was prepared to offer assistance to combat Mexico’s notorious cartels.

“If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” Trump wrote.

“… This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the Earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!” he said.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president at the time, declined the offer.

Asked last week whether he would consider “ordering U.S. special forces into Mexico” to “take out” cartels, Trump said it “could happen.”

“Stranger things have happened,” said the U.S. president, who last year indicated he was open to using military “strikes” against Mexican cartels.

‘We don’t agree with the treatment of migrants as criminals’

Sheinbaum also responded to a question about Trump’s apparent plan to send tens of thousands of migrants to the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

“Obviously we don’t agree with the treatment of migrants as criminals. And we’re always going to look for international law and the protection of human rights to prevail,” she said.

Sheinbaum said that her government hadn’t spoken to the Trump administration about the plan to hold “criminal aliens” at the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, where terrorism suspects are detained.

However, she stressed that Mexican and U.S. authorities are collaborating on the issue of migration.

“We’re in permanent dialogue and there is very good coordination,” Sheinbaum said.

Government will continue to hire Cuban doctors 

Toward the end of her Friday morning press conference, Sheinbaum said that the federal government will continue to hire doctors from Cuba and other foreign countries to fill positions in Mexico.

“Where specialist doctors are needed in our country and there is solidarity from [doctors from] other countries to come and help our health services, the hiring will continue because what takes precedence is health care for the people,” she said.

The federal government announced last July that 2,700 Cuban medical specialists would come to Mexico to work, joining 950 Cuban doctors already in the country.

Mexican medical associations have opposed the hiring of Cuban doctors, saying that there are many out-of-work Mexican physicians who could fill vacant positions.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])