Friday marked 10 months to the day since Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration as Mexico’s first female president.
On Sept. 1, she will present her first informe del gobierno, or government report, to the Congress, and in a major speech.
Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador delivered his sixth and final informe speech last September in front of a large crowd in Mexico City’s Zócalo a month before he finished his six-year term.
Sheinbaum said earlier this week that she has begun preparing her inaugural informe, but she has not yet decided where she will deliver her speech.
On Friday, she presided over her regular morning press conference, a day after reaching a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that allowed Mexico to avoid a 30% tariff that was scheduled to take effect this Friday Aug. 1.
US has a ‘very big responsibility’ to combat narcotics because that’s where drug use occurs
A reporter highlighted that a number of U.S.-based organized crime groups, including the Border Brothers, the Crips, Florencia 13 and the New Mexico Syndicate, are mentioned in the non-fiction book “Los cárteles gringos” by J. Jesús Esquivel.
“However,” the reporter added, “we don’t see significant seizures of drugs” in the United States or the imprisonment of “narco leaders on the other side.”
“Do you think that the fight against drug trafficking is asymmetrical between Mexico and the United States?” the reporter asked the president.
Por si quieren leer algo en estos días… pic.twitter.com/asmwWqBTXU
— J. Jesus Esquivel (@JJesusEsquivel) June 15, 2025
Sheinbaum first stressed that it is up to Mexico to tackle the drug problem in its own territory and the responsibility of the United States to do the same north of the border.
“And we collaborate and coordinate; that’s why there are extradition treaties and other mechanisms for cooperation,” she added.
“… But I’ve mentioned here that the United States, in general, dedicates itself to talking about organized crime in Mexico. They have the right to mention it, but on the other side of the border, who sells the drugs?” Sheinbaum asked.
“Who launders the money?” she asked. “That part has to be investigated.”
Sheinbaum subsequently asserted that the United States has a “very big responsibility” to combat drug use, drug trafficking and associated criminal activity because use of narcotics primarily occurs “on the other side” of the border.
She said that in her call with Trump on Thursday, she and the U.S. leader spoke once again about Mexico’s anti-fentanyl campaign.
“And I told him that we were going to start a campaign against the use of methamphetamine and the harm it causes to young people and to health in general,” Sheinbaum said.
Hoy, 18 de julio de 2025, conmemoramos el 153 Aniversario Luctuoso de Benito Juárez García, Benemérito de las Américas, abogado de origen zapoteco reconocido por ser el primer Ministro indígena en la #SCJN y el primer presidente indígena de #México. Su legado es historia. pic.twitter.com/fEHCK4HWAb
— Hugo Aguilar Ortiz (@HugoAguilarOrti) July 18, 2025
“And he asked me: ‘Do you think these campaigns have helped to keep young people away from drugs?’ And I said, ‘Yes,'” she said.
“I told him about the work we’re doing in schools. And he agreed that, in addition to targeting criminal gangs, there must be attention to the causes [of drug use] and addiction, in particular,” Sheinbaum said.
Is there a ‘we’re going to wipe the cartels off the face of the earth’ clause in the new Mexico-US security agreement? Sheinbaum says no
A reporter noted that U.S. border czar Tom Homan spoke on Thursday about the United States’ intention to “wipe the cartels off the face of the earth.”
“Under Biden the cartels made more money than they ever made — smuggling aliens, sex trafficking of women and children, smuggling dope across the border. Now we have a secure border the cartels are going bankrupt. And President Trump, through all his efforts and his leadership, we’re going to wipe the cartels off the face of the earth, which makes not only this country safer but Mexico safer,” Homan said.
The reporter asked the president whether the intent to “wipe the cartels off the face of the earth” is included in any sense in the new bilateral security agreement Mexico and the United States are set to sign soon.
“It’s their way of talking, right?” said Sheinbaum, who has said on several occasions that Trump has his own unique “way of communicating.”
She said that her government, “within the framework of the law and our constitution,” does what it has to do to prosecute crime.
Sheinbaum subsequently assured reporters that “these words” spoken by Homan “are not established in the agreement” on security that Mexico and the U.S. are set to sign soon.
Sheinbaum happy that Mexico will soon have a new judiciary
On Sept. 1, the same day that Sheinbaum will present her first informe, the candidates elected as judges, magistrates and Supreme Court justices in Mexico’s first (and controversial) judicial elections will assume their positions.
Sheinbaum reiterated on Friday that she will attend the swearing-in ceremony for the new Supreme Court justices, if she is invited.
“Of course we’re very happy about this popular election process for the Supreme Court,” said the president, who argued that judicial elections were needed to rid the nation’s courts of corruption and other ills.
Sheinbaum expressed her belief that the incoming chief justice of the Supreme Court, Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, is “an honest and knowledgable person.”
She also noted that Aguilar, an indigenous lawyer from Oaxaca, has worked to defend indigenous people’s rights during his career.
“Of course we are pleased that the new judiciary is coming in,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
