Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila announced over the weekend that the United States has revoked tourist visas for her and her husband, Carlos Torres Torres.
The action, confirmed by Baja California officials, marks an unprecedented diplomatic rift involving a sitting Mexican state leader. Ávila, 39, was elected governor in 2021 after serving 17 months as the first female mayor of Mexicali.
The Morena party member did not specify the reason for the revocation but linked it to a “complex binational context” requiring “my composure and prudence.”
In social media posts on Facebook and X, she expressed confidence the matter would be “satisfactorily clarified for both of us.”
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment, saying only that “visa records are confidential and that the details of individual cases cannot be discussed,” according to the Associated Press.
As of midday Monday, neither U.S. nor Mexican officials had provided further updates.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration had not been formally notified by U.S. authorities and urged caution until official details emerge.
Like his wife, whom he married in 2019, Torres is a politician and a member of the ruling Morena party.
The 49-year-old was a member of Mexico’s lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, from 2006 to 2009 and is currently a coordinator of strategic projects for the city of Tijuana.
He announced the revocation of his visa on Friday, saying the action “corresponds to internal processes of the [U.S.] State Department” and that it “does not constitute an accusation, investigation or formal accusation by any authority, either in Mexico or in the United States.”
According to CNN, Ávila was visited last Thursday by the U.S. consul general in Tijuana, Christopher Teal, with whom she discussed regional bilateral issues such as security, economic development and human rights. Teal was appointed to the post in August.
Last month, the governor visited San Diego for the Tianguis Turístico, an annual conference for tourism professionals that was hosted this year in Rosarito, Baja California, but included two days of events north of the border.
Earlier this year, the U.S. revoked the work and travel visas for the Mexican band Los Alegres del Barranco after it paid tribute in a live song to a drug lord, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. Shortly thereafter, U.S. officials said all Mexican “narcocorrido” singers would be at risk.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on April 30 a “one-strike” policy for all temporary visa holders.
In a document titled “100 Days of an America First State Department,” Rubio stated, “There is now a one-strike policy: Catch-And-Revoke. Whenever the government catches non-U.S. citizens breaking our laws, we will take action to revoke their status. The time of contemptuously taking advantage of our nation’s generosity ends.”
On Sunday, seven mayors in Baja California, all from the Morena party, publicly backed Ávila, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The newspaper said the party’s state leadership called the situation “a purely administrative procedure” and that the reasons behind it “are not always made public and should not be used to tarnish careers built with effort and popular legitimacy.”
With reports from Reforma, El Economista, Fox 5–KUSI, El Financiero, Associated Press and CNN
