At her Wednesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about CIA drone flights over Mexico, the reasons why she is not afraid of Donald Trump and the United States’ designation of various Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Later in the day, Sheinbaum traveled to the northern state of Nuevo León to take part in a Mexican Army Day ceremony.
Sheinbaum: US drone flights a part of long-standing security collaboration between Mexico and US
A day after CNN network and the New York Times newspaper reported that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been flying drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels and hunt for fentanyl labs, Sheinbaum said that the missions are an aspect of the long-standing security collaboration between Mexico and the U.S.
“In the first place, there is nothing illegal [taking place]. What there is, is collaboration and cooperation that has been going on for many years; it’s not something new,” she said.
The U.S. drone flights over Mexico only occur after the government of Mexico has requested them in order to obtain information to be able to respond to prevailing “security conditions,” Sheinbaum said.
The flights occur within the “frameworks of collaboration that are established mainly between the armed forces of Mexico and the different institutions of the United States government,” she said.
“So there is nothing illegal, and it’s part of a collaboration and coordination in which information is shared, always within the framework of the four essential principles of collaboration between the United States and Mexico, among which a main element is respect for our sovereignty,” she said.
“Now the question is: “Why does this article appear in The New York Times?” Sheinbaum said.
“Who gave this article to The New York Times?,” she said. “What do they want to provoke with the article? And [then there are] all the chorus leaders in the Mexican media — or in the opposition — saying, ‘The president of Mexico is weak. She had to yield to the espionage of the United States government. Sovereignty is being violated,’ when in reality it’s a protocol of coordination and collaboration that has existed for years between the governments of the United States and Mexico.”
Asked why she believes The New York Times published the article about the CIA drones, Sheinbaum responded, “Because they want to damage us.”
She claimed that the aim was to make the Mexican government appear “as if we were negotiating national sovereignty.”
“Never. And they’re not going to damage us because the people of Mexico and the government are one. There is no divorce here, and we never lie,” Sheinbaum said.
No fear of Trump
“Aren’t you afraid of Trump?” a Brazil-based Swedish journalist asked the president after highlighting that there are “so many threats” from the U.S. president, including ones to deport large numbers of Mexicans and impose tariffs on Mexican exports.
“No,” Sheinbaum responded.
“I have the people [of Mexico] behind me. When one has certainty and conviction and knows what one’s principles are, why should one be afraid?” she said.
Sheinbaum noted that her government is currently engaging with its U.S. counterpart, including over proposed tariffs, and declared that “we will never allow our sovereignty to be violated.”
“And if it is violated, there is an entire people [ready] to defend their homeland,” she said.
Earlier in the press conference, Sheinbaum reiterated her view that “there will be a good relationship between President Trump and the presidenta of Mexico.”
Mexico will not accept ‘extraterritorial actions’ from US in light of the designation of cartels as terrorists
While Sheinbaum is not opposed to the flying of CIA drones over Mexico, she has said on numerous occasions that she wouldn’t accept any kind of U.S. military intervention on Mexican soil.
On Wednesday, she declared that if the United States’ designation of Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) “has to do with extraterritorial actions, we will not accept those.”
The United States government has designated six Mexican cartels as FTOs, according to a public notice from the Department of State. The designations of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the United Cartels, the Northeast Cartel, the Gulf Cartel and La Nueva Familia Michoacana as FTOs will take effect on Thursday once the notice is published in the United States Federal Register.
Trump congratulates US military after airstrike that killed official of Al-Qaeda affiliate: ‘Dealt Justice’https://t.co/QbXt4kOs5M
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 18, 2025
On February 15, the U.S. conducted a precision airstrike to kill an official with the Syrian al-Quaeda affiliate terrorist group Hurras al-Din. Is the U.S. prepared to conduct these types of attacks on Mexican soil to capture or even kill cartel leaders? Sheinbaum said Mexico would not tolerate “extraterritorial actions” by the U.S.
If the designations are made to further support investigations of money laundering in the United States and the operation of the designated criminal groups in the U.S. then the move is a “very good” one, Sheinbaum said.
“What we don’t accept is the violation of our sovereignty,” she added.
“That’s why it’s collaboration, coordination without subordination, without interventionism, without interference,” Sheinbaum said.
She noted that the government of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador modified Mexico’s National Security Law to make it “very clear” what “United States agents” can and can’t do in Mexico.
“And we’re evaluating, assessing, what additional things [are required] to protect our sovereignty because we can’t allow activities to be carried out [by the United States in Mexico] that aren’t part of the [bilateral] collaboration or coordination,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
