On Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum committed to sending 10,000 National Guard (GN) troops to Mexico’s northern border as part of an agreement she reached with United States President Donald Trump that resulted in a one-month “pause” on the 25% tariff the U.S. government planned to impose on Mexican exports starting Tuesday.
At her morning press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that the deployment of the troops has begun.
She also spoke about a U.S. “spy plane” that flew in the vicinity of the Baja California Peninsula on Monday, and Ecuador’s decision to slap tariffs on Mexican exports.
Deployment of GN troops to northern border ‘doesn’t leave the rest of the country without security’
Sheinbaum told reporters that additional GN troops had started moving to the northern border region in keeping with her commitment to Trump.
She said that National Guard personnel deployed to parts of the country without major security problems, such as Campeche, were being sent to the border.
“Others who were in the southern part of the [northern] border states are going to the northern border,” she added.
Sheinbaum asserted that the deployment of additional troops to the northern border “doesn’t leave the rest of the country without security” because the GN has 120,000 members in total.
“We’re not leaving the states of the republic exposed, far from it,” she said.
“… [It’s just] a reorientation of forces,” Sheinabum said.
She said that the deployment of additional troops to the northern border will not just help the United States, but Mexico as well.
“The forces going there don’t just have the objective of patrolling customs so that fentanyl doesn’t get through, but will also help us strengthen security on the Ribereña highway, for example,” Sheinbaum said, referring to a highway in northern Tamaulipas.
“Yesterday, for example, [seven] bodies were found in San Luis Río Colorado, which is on the border in Sonora. We want to strengthen security there,” she added.
“[The deployment of troops] helps us as well, it helps to avoid fentanyl trafficking in the agreement we achieved with the United States, but it also helps security on the border,” Sheinbaum said.
“… It’s an agreement that is also beneficial for Mexico,” she said.
US spy plane flight near Mexico ‘not something strange’
The Defense Ministry reported on Monday that its Mazatlán Area Control Center had informed the National Center for the Surveillance and Protection of Airspace that it detected on Monday afternoon “a flight 83 km to the southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, outside Mexican airspace over international waters.”
Mexican media reported that the aircraft was a United States Air Force “spy plane.”
A las 13:41 horas, el Centro de Control de Área Mazatlán informó al Centro Nacional de Vigilancia y Protección del Espacio Aéreo (CENAVI) que detectó un vuelo a 83 km al suroeste de Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, fuera del espacio aéreo mexicano sobre aguas internacionales.
— @Defensamx (@SEDENAmx) February 4, 2025
The Defense Ministry’s post on Twitter reporting the U.S. “spy” plane.
El Universal newspaper said that the “highly specialized reconnaissance airplane has the capability to collect, analyze, and geolocate electromagnetic signals, in addition to providing critical intelligence for target selection and threat prevention.”
Sheinbaum stressed that the plane had not entered Mexican airspace, flying only in “international airspace.”
“It’s not something strange that there is a plane that flies in international airspace,” she said.
Asked whether the flight was related in any way to the agreement she reached with Trump on Monday, Sheinbaum was unequivocal.
“No, no, no. Nothing to do with it,” she said.
‘Shrimp from Sinaloa are more delicious than those from Ecuador’
A reporter noted that the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, announced tariffs of 27% on Mexican exports to the South American country.
Sheinbaum shrugged off the new duties, saying that she believed that shipments to Ecuador accounted for just 0.4% of Mexico’s total exports.
“Just with that, I’ll respond,” she said before emphasizing her belief that Mexico has little need to trade with Ecuador.
“Shrimp from Sinaloa are more delicious than those from Ecuador, it’s the truth,” Sheinbaum said.
“People from Baja California Sur are going to get annoyed,” she added.
The Mexican government broke diplomatic relationships with Ecuador in April 2024 after Ecuadorian police broke into the Mexican Embassy in Quito and arrested former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas Espinel on corruption charges. Glas — who had been promised asylum in Mexico — had been holed up in the Mexican Embassy for four months at the time of his arrest.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
