At her Monday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum once again expressed optimism that her government can ward off the 30% tariff the United States intends to impose on imports from Mexico on Friday.
She also responded to claims that the U.S. government is pressuring Mexico to detain and extradite Mexican politicians with alleged links to drug cartels.
In addition, Sheinbaum offered a defense of the ruling Morena party’s top senator, Adán Augusto López Hernández, a former governor of Tabasco who has been caught up in a scandal involving the man who served as his security minister in the Gulf coast state.
Sheinbaum remains confident that Mexico will reach a deal with US to avert 30% tariff
A reporter noted that United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on the weekend that there would be “no extensions” or “grace periods” for U.S trade partners, and that the tariffs scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1 “are set” to go into force.
United States President Donald Trump informed Sheinbaum earlier this month that the U.S. would impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico, “separate from all Sectoral Tariffs,” on Aug 1.
Despite Lutnick’s remark, Sheinbaum said that her government still believed that it could reach an agreement with its U.S. counterpart to stave off the tariff.
“We’re still talking, we’re still talking with [the U.S. government],” she stressed.
WATCH: @howardlutnick on President Trump negotiating a tariff deal with the European Union: “The question is, do they offer President Trump a good enough deal that is worth it for him to step off of the 30 percent tariffs that he set?” pic.twitter.com/wRUJ0ZiRpP
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) July 27, 2025
Sheinbaum highlighted that the U.S. government recently signed new trade agreements with Japan and the European Union.
“And we expect an agreement this week,” she said.
“… Obviously the United States has its position and we have ours, but we believe we’re going to reach an agreement,” Sheinbaum said.
The president said last Thursday that her government was doing “everything” it could to stop the 30% duty from entering into force.
“There is a team working in the United States with the [U.S.] commerce secretary and the treasury secretary,” she said at her Thursday morning press conference.
“We made a series of proposals that have to do with Plan México and also reducing the trade deficit [with the United States], which is one of the concerns of President Trump,” Sheinbaum said.
“… We’re going to see whether the teams can find an agreement. … We’re confident we can reach a good agreement,” she said.
Claims that the US is pressuring Mexico to arrest politicians on drug trafficking charges are ‘completely false,’ says Sheinbaum
A reporter told the president that there have been claims, especially in newspaper columns, that the United States has been exerting pressure on Mexico to hand over “alleged ‘big fish’ of narco-politics in Mexico.”
“I want to ask you whether this is true or not?” the reporter said.
Sheinbaum said that such claims are completely and utterly false.
“What are their sources?” she asked, referring to columnists.
Sheinbaum said that in none of her “many” calls with Trump has the United States president asked for Mexico to hand over any politician or any person with links to a politician.
She also said that neither the U.S. Department of State nor the Department of Justice has asked Mexican authorities to arrest and hand over a politician with alleged drug ties.
Asked whether “this issue” had “contaminated” trade talks with the United States, Sheinbaum responded, “No, not at all.”
Citing “sources familiar with the matter,” the Reuters news agency reported last month that the Trump administration was “pressuring Mexico to investigate and prosecute politicians with suspected links to organized crime, and to extradite them to the United States if there are criminal charges to answer there.”
Sheinbaum and Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry described the report as “completely false.”
On two occasions, the United States Embassy in Mexico has denounced as “false” supposed U.S. government lists of Mexican politicians with criminal links.
Sheinbaum’s latest rejection of claims that the United States is pressuring Mexico to arrest politicians with alleged cartel links comes as Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández, a former governor of Tabasco and ex-federal interior minister, continues to face questions and pressure over the scandal involving the man who served as his security minister in Tabasco, Hernán Bermúdez, who is wanted on charges related to his alleged involvement with the La Barredora criminal group.
‘There is no investigation against’ López Hernández, Sheinbaum stresses
Sheinbaum noted that the Tabasco Attorney General’s Office has a warrant for the arrest of Bermúdez, and asserted that her government is “collaborating in whatever is necessary” to detain the former state security minister, who reportedly left Mexico in January.
She highlighted that the Finance Ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit last week “froze the accounts of companies linked to this person.”
A reporter suggested that it was “obvious” that López Hernández knew about the alleged criminal links of his security minister in Tabasco, just as it has been claimed that it is “obvious” that former president Felipe Calderón knew about the illicit activities of his former security minister, Genaro García Luna, who was convicted in the United States of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel and sentenced to more than 38 years in prison.
“That’s why the investigations have to continue,” Sheinbaum said.
“And he [López Hernández] already said, ‘ … Ask me. What I know, I’ll say,'” she added.
The aforesaid reporter noted that there have been calls for López Hernández to step down as the leader of the ruling Morena party in the Senate, and asked the president whether his “leadership” in the upper house is “solid.”
“Yes,” Sheinbaum responded before stressing that “there is no investigation … against the senator.”
López Hernández was governor of Tabasco between 2019 and 2021 before leaving that position to become interior minister in the government of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He resigned as interior minister in 2023 to vie for the 2024 presidential election nomination of Morena, a contest that Sheinbaum ultimately won before going on to claim victory in the election on June 2 last year.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
