MEXICO CITY -- President Claudia Sheinbaum began her workday at dawn last week by grilling Mexico's top security and intelligence officials. She wasn't happy.
Inside the ornate National Palace, Sheinbaum confronted some of her most trusted aides over their plans to freeze the local bank accounts of former Mexican officials linked to a state governor from Sheinbaum's ruling party. The U.S. Treasury was about to target those former officials with sanctions for allegedly accepting bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel's drug-smuggling operations, said people familiar with the discussion.
To Sheinbaum, her security chiefs were going beyond the close cooperation with American law enforcement that has been the hallmark of her two-year tenure by taking for granted that the U.S. had solid evidence linking the former officials to drug cartels, these people said.
She was unusually harsh with Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, a confidant who has guided her policies throughout her political career, the people said. Sheinbaum said that the U.S. measures were part of an effort to destabilize Mexico and her government, they added.
In the end, Sheinbaum consented to freeze the former officials' accounts. Refusing to do so would have likely strained relations with the U.S.
Spokespersons for Sheinbaum and García Harfuch declined to comment.
The episode reflects the harsher tone that Sheinbaum is taking toward American efforts to fight drug trafficking on her country's soil and the Trump administration's targeting of her leftist party, Morena. In recent weeks, Sheinbaum has criticized the U.S. at mass rallies and public events, blaming the northern neighbor's insatiable demand for narcotics and defending Mexican sovereignty as President Trump has repeatedly said that Mexico is run by cartels.
"We Mexicans don't want interference, interventionism, or violations of our territorial integrity," she said before tens of thousands of supporters in Mexico City's central Zócalo square late last month. She has also confronted state governors from opposition parties who want to strengthen security cooperation with the U.S.
Sheinbaum is facing immense pressure at home and abroad to deliver results in the fight against drug cartels while more ruling party officials face corruption allegations, said Alberto Capella, who served as security chief of Tijuana and the states of Morelos and Quintana Roo.
"Collaboration with the U.S. is a prerequisite for achieving results; when that collaboration is restricted or denied, it renders your work meaningless," Capella said. He added that security officials face rising domestic political pressure to back off from corruption scandals.
Morena leader Ariadna Montiel has said that there is no room for corruption within the party, while adding that certain allegations of corruption aim to undermine Mexico's sovereignty.
Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 21 individuals with alleged links to the Sinaloa cartel, including officials who allegedly accepted bribes to protect the criminal group at border crossings in the cities of Tijuana and Mexicali. At the center of the alleged scheme was the then-husband of Marina del Pilar Ávila, the governor of the border state of Baja California.
The State Department said that the sanctions "highlight the corrosive reach of cartel influence into Mexican governance, particularly in Baja California."
The sanctions were the latest in a string of corruption allegations rocking Morena in recent months. The Trump administration has also indicted the governor of western Sinaloa state and revoked the U.S. visa of a son of former nationalist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor.
Sheinbaum criticized past Treasury sanctions against three Mexican financial institutions over money-laundering allegations. Although Mexican authorities detected irregularities in some accounts managed by the firms, they found no evidence establishing links to criminal organizations, Sheinbaum said last week.
The companies denied wrongdoing. Sheinbaum's administration took over the three financial institutions last year to prevent a run on deposits.
Sheinbaum has decried the lack of evidence to rebuff U.S. accusations against former Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha, who was indicted by the U.S. earlier this year on charges that he aided the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for bribes and political backing. Although Sheinbaum forced Rocha to resign, she has consistently rejected a U.S. request for his extradition.
"Let's be clear: First they come for some, then for others, until offices of the Department of Justice decide elections in Mexico," she said at a rally earlier this year.
Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit said last week that it blocked bank accounts of firms and individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury as a preventive measure after detecting "risky financial transactions and irregularities reported by financial institutions." It made no reference about alleged links of these individuals to organized crime. A spokesman for the unit declined to comment.
The U.S. Treasury described Ávila's ex-husband, Carlos Torres, as a cartel-linked political operator who has an alliance with a Sinaloa cartel boss operating in the border city of Mexicali. "Torres uses his political influence to facilitate cartel activities and protect the Sinaloa Cartel from government and law-enforcement intervention in Baja California," the U.S. Treasury said on Monday.
The U.S. State Department revoked Torres' visa in May 2025. It also revoked Ávila's visa, without disclosing the reason. Ávila, who previously served as mayor of Mexicali, said she filed for divorce from Torres after the visa revocations. She wasn't on the list of sanctioned individuals, her spokesman said.
Capella, Tijuana's former security chief, said revoking the visa of a governor of a Mexican border state "is a massive slap in the face, primarily because the U.S. is your main partner in every respect."
Torres worked for Baja California's state government until June 2025. The U.S. Treasury alleges that he received monthly payments to allow the Sinaloa cartel to operate with relative impunity in the border state. His brother Luis was responsible for taking these bribes and laundering the illicit funds through companies and political campaigns, the U.S. said. Carlos Torres didn't respond to requests for comment. Luis Torres couldn't be reached for comment.
Ávila denied wrongdoing. The state of Baja California said in a statement that Ávila is legally divorced from Torres. "The only interest she shares is the well-being of her son," it said.
Comments