Mexican Senator Lilly Téllez engaged in a war of words with President Claudia Sheinbaum Thursday and Friday after telling Fox News that most Mexicans would welcome U.S. assistance in the war against drug cartels.
Téllez, a member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), angered President Sheinbaum and members of the ruling Morena party by referring to them on Wednesday as narco-politicians resisting the U.S. offer to battle the cartels.
Sheinbaum responded on Thursday by calling Téllez a traitor for encouraging U.S. intervention.
“It’s not a minor issue that a senator gave an interview to a foreign media outlet calling for intervention,” Sheinbaum said.
Téllez clapped back Friday with a lengthy statement on social media, contending she said no such thing.
“What I said was ‘help’ (cooperation and consent), not ‘intervention’ (violation of sovereignty). … Speaking of help is a political act that is realized through the will of the parties, it is freedom of expression and parliamentary inviolability, not a crime,” she wrote.
During Wednesday’s appearance on Fox Noticias, Téllez told Rachel Campos-Duffy that the U.S. offer to help Mexico fight drug cartels “is absolutely welcome,” assuring the Fox News host that “this is the opinion of the majority of Mexicans.”
“The only people opposed to the offer to help us … are the narco-politicians, which includes President Sheinbaum and her entire group,” Téllez said, pointing to the president’s recent endorsement of Morena Senator Adán Augusto López.
López is accused by the opposition of ties to organized crime in the state of Tabasco, stemming from his relationship to his hand-picked state security minister Hernán Bermúdez, a fugitive who is the alleged leader of the La Barredora crime gang.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum ratified López as the leader of the Morena caucus in the Senate.
Telléz, a former member of Morena, said the ratification proves that the Sheinbaum administration is “infiltrated by the drug cartels,” which have been labeled as terrorists by the U.S. government.
“This government is clearly associated with the cartels,” she said, adding that this is why Sheinbaum has been “angered by [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s offer to help” while her administration “is doing everything it can to obstruct” U.S. efforts to take on the drug cartels.
🚨 EXHIBE SHEINBAUM A LA VENDEPATRIAS de Lilly Téllez por ir a Fox News y pedir la int3rvención de Estados Unidos.
¡PERO PRONTO SE LE BORRARÁ LA SONRISA A LA ETERNA PLURINOMINAL! pic.twitter.com/0O10vLRCGO
— Morena Noticias (@Morena_Durango_) August 22, 2025
The PAN senator said Mexicans are fed up with the violence and corruption cultivated by organized crime gangs, asserting her view that Morena is protecting the cartels, which is “the genuine treason against the homeland.”
Téllez also criticized Sheinbaum’s foreign policy stance, accusing her of preferring ideological alliances (citing Venezuela and Cuba) over security cooperations (citing Sheinbaum’s public denial of cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration).
With reports from El Universal, El Imparcial and Fox News
