The military build-up on the United States’ southern border, a controversial comment by a Michoacán mayor and a former president’s opposition to the upcoming judicial elections were among the issues President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Friday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s May 23 mañanera.
Sheinbaum responds to United States’ militarization of its southern border
A reporter asked Sheinbaum about a United States Embassy social media post in which it said that the U.S. government “has designated certain areas of the southern border of the United States as areas of national defense.”
In keeping with that, the U.S. Northern Command said on Thursday that “1,115 service members were approved to deploy to the Southern Border” as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s “continued whole-of-government approach to gain full operational control of the southern border.”
Thousands of active-duty U.S. troops have already been deployed to the United States’ border with Mexico as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to stop the entry of drugs, and migrants between official ports of entry.
Sheinbaum said on Friday that the United States has “the right to do in their country what they determine.”
US deploys over 1,000 additional troops to border with Mexico
“We also have the right to say we don’t agree,” she added.
Sheinbaum went on to say that “from the first moment” that the United States “increased the military presence on the southern border of their country, we sent a note.”
She was referring to a diplomatic note her government sent to its U.S. counterpart in April after United States Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced “the emergency withdrawal and transfer” to the U.S. Army “of administrative jurisdiction over approximately 109,651 acres of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border.”
In that note, Sheinbaum said on April 16, the Mexican government acknowledged that what the U.S. does “in its own territory” is “a decision for them,” but also expressed its expectation that U.S. military actions wouldn’t “cross the border” and that there would continue to be “the same collaboration there has been until now in security matters.”
On Friday, the president said the diplomatic note set out that Mexico respects what the United States does “in their country,” but also advised the U.S. to “always remember territorial sovereignty.”
She has said on repeated occasions that Mexico will never accept any kind of U.S. intervention in Mexican territory.
On Friday, Sheinbaum stressed that “people don’t migrate for pleasure,” but rather out of “necessity.”
“We’re always going to say that the best way to address migration is with cooperation for development, supporting the communities from which people migrate out of need,” she said.
“… That will always be our position … but they’ve taken the decision to put more military presence on their border to avoid migration. We believe that the orientation should be different,” Sheinbaum said.
Mayor who called for police to use lethal force against armed criminals is ‘wrong,’ says Sheinbaum
A reporter asked the president her opinion on a declaration by the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, that municipal police should “shoot down” armed criminals.
Mayor Carlos Manzo made the declaration this week after a municipal employee, identified as Adriana Cerca, was shot dead outside a school in Uruapan.
“If you see they are shooting, you have to shoot them down. If they are attacking citizens, you have to shoot them down. No consideration should be given to these scum of society,” Manzo said.
#Michoacán🔴Tras as3sin4t0 de empleada del Ayuntamiento de #Uruapan, alcalde ordena uso de fuerza letal contra delincuentes
Presidente municipal Carlos Manzo instruyó a los policías a abatir a cualquier agresor 4rm4d0 que represente un riesgo para la ciudadanía @MeganoticiasMx pic.twitter.com/Bm8PRECEVu— MeganoticiasMorelia (@MN_Morelia) May 21, 2025
Sheinbaum said that the mayor is “wrong” to hold such a view.
“Rule of law,” she said.
“In other words, for a person who commits a crime there is an accusatory criminal system in Mexico. What there has to be is an investigation or an arrest in flagrante, and evidence to determine whether a person is guilty or not,” Sheinbaum said.
The president said that what the mayor had proposed was to “go back to the war against the narco,” a reference to the militarized fight against drug cartels initiated by former president Felipe Calderón shortly after he took office in 2006.
“That had a cost and continues to have a very high cost in our country,” Sheinbaum said.
The president has pledged that her government won’t pursue the kind of militarized “war” against cartels that Calderón undertook, but her administration has ramped up enforcement against criminal organizations, leading to speculation that it has abandoned the “not bullets” part of the “hugs, not bullet” security strategy of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Sheinbaum: People have the right to protest, rather than vote, on June 1
A reporter noted that former president Vicente Fox has called on Mexicans to not vote in the judicial elections on June 1, but rather protest.
On social media in recent days, Fox has railed against the judicial elections and the 2024 judicial reform on repeated occasions.
“My entire life I’ve called [on people] to vote but on June 1 you won’t be exercising your vote, you’ll be legitimizing a farce,” he wrote in one post to X.
TODA MI VIDA HE LLAMADO A VOTAR…
PERO EL 1° DE JUNIO, NO ESTARÁS EJERCIENDO TU VOTO, ESTARÁS LEGITIMANDO UNA FARSA.
LOS JUECES NO OFRECEN PROPUESTAS, NO HACEN CAMPAÑA, NO DEBEN DEBER FAVORES ¡ESTO NO ES DEMOCRACIA, ES CONTROL ABSOLUTO! ¡DEFENDAMOS EL ESTADO DE DERECHO!— Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) May 16, 2025
Fox, president between 2000 and 2006, said in another post that “the judicial reform is an authentic rotten apple.”
“Don’t bite it, don’t bite the hook,” he wrote.
In yet another post earlier this week, Fox wrote:
“The election of judges by popular vote places at risk judicial independence and the transparency of the system. We will not allow justice to be politicized and become an extension of political interests.”In response, Sheinbaum said that “Mexico is free” and people “can exercise their right to protest.”
“They can call on people to ‘not vote.’ That’s their right,” she said.
“… What do we call [on people to do]? To vote, to freely exercise the right to vote, that’s what we’re calling for,” Sheinbaum said.
She said that on June 2 last year, the Mexican people didn’t just vote to elect a female president, but also for “constitutional changes.”
“… That was our slogan throughout the entire campaign, there is no surprise. The people decided that the profound transformation of our country should continue. And the people will come out and vote [on June 1],” Sheinbaum said.
The president argues that the elections are necessary to rid the judiciary of ills such as corruption and nepotism.
There are a range of concerns about the popular election of judges, including that the ruling Morena party will attempt to stack the courts with judges sympathetic to their cause.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
