MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities on Wednesday continued to muddle the official account over the role of two CIA agents in an counternarcotics operation in northern Mexico and the extent to which Mexico's federal government was aware of the U.S. involvement in the incident, which has started to ignite tensions with the White House.
The incident has increasingly fueled speculation in the Latin American nation as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum
for more than a year has repeatedly underscored her country's sovereignty and publicly turned down offers by U.S. President Donald Trump of intervention on cartels.
The Mexican government acknowledges the presence of U.S. agencies on Mexican territory but says that they cannot participate in on-the-ground operations.
Mexican and U.S. officials have been offering contradictory accounts for days. After the Mexican government originally said it had no knowledge of any sort operation or U.S. involvement, the president admitted Wednesday that federal forces were involved and another high-level official acknowledged that the government at least discussed the matter with the U.S.
The collaboration came to light this week after two local investigators in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua and two CIA agents — originally identified as U.S. Embassy officials — reportedly died in a car crash in the early morning on Sunday while driving back from an operation to destroy cartel laboratories in a rugged area of Mexico. The local government said the convoy drove off the side of a ravine and the car exploded.
The Americans killed were from the CIA, The Associated Press confirmed on Tuesday with a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
Sheinbaum on Wednesday maintained that she had no knowledge of the operation between the U.S. and local Chihuahua authorities, and that it could constitute a violation of Mexico's law, because any such action should be approved by the federal government.
In her press briefing she said she was considering possible sanctions on Chihuahua’s government, and emphasized that the operation didn’t constitute a new security strategy by Trump in her country. She added that she sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador requesting that he provide all available information regarding the incident and that she planned to speak to Chihuahua's governor.
“There cannot be agents from any U.S. government institution operating in the Mexican field,” Sheinbaum said Wednesday. “It is very important that something like this not be allowed to go unaddressed."
The CIA particularly has a tainted legacy in Latin America, associated in decades past with orchestrating coups and backing military dictatorships in a number of countries. Despite that, the agency has maintained a presence in Mexico for many years, which has also been the subject of contention in Mexican politics.
On Wednesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on Sheinbaum's comments, saying that U.S. efforts to counter cartels in Mexico “is not only a benefit to the American people, but to her people as well.”
“I think the president would agree that some sympathy from Claudia Sheinbaum would be well worth it for the two American lives that were lost, considering all that the United States of America is doing currently under this president to stop the scourge of drug trafficking through Mexico to the United States,” Leavitt said in an appearance on Fox News.
The Trump administration has provided very few comments on the incident since the Sunday crash. The CIA declined to comment on Wednesday.
The back-and-forth comes after days of contradictions in accounts, which have raised eyebrows and have prompted experts to say it underscores heightened U.S. involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.
Those only continued on Wednesday when Sheinbaum acknowledged that Mexico's army participated in the operation, but didn't know that the U.S. agents were present. Days before, Chihuahua's Attorney General César Jáuregui said the investigation came following months of investigation by state prosecutors and Mexico's military.
Later on Wednesday, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said at a news conference that the Defense Ministry had previously “received a petition for security support” by the U.S. But, he added, that “going to support an operation is different from actually being part of the planning of a operation.”
“Agents have never been in the field with us," he added.
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David Klepper and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
