Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum denied the existence of joint operations between Mexican security forces and U.S. agents on Mexican soil to arrest suspected members of organized crime.
During her press conference this Monday, February 9, Sheinbaum stated that bilateral security cooperation between Mexico and the United States is limited to the exchange of information and ruled out the operational presence of foreign agencies.
The mayor emphasized that there are no shared field operations with U.S. personnel and clarified the scope of the existing collaboration. “There are no joint operations, none whatsoever. If anything, there is information provided by a U.S. agency,” she stated.
Likewise, the mayor denied that there has been an increase in the number of U.S. agents authorized to operate in Mexico.
She explained that only administrative renewals are carried out when an agent is replaced, without this implying an increase in foreign personnel. With this, she rejected claims of a long-standing presence of U.S. agents in the country.
“The only thing that exists regarding permits for agents from the various agencies is renewal: if someone leaves, then someone else arrives to replace them. That’s important, because recently the claim was circulated that some agencies had historically had more agents in Mexico than ever before, which is not true,” explained Claudia Sheinbaum.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s statements came after the publication of a report in The New York Times a few weeks ago, which alleges that the Donald Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to allow the participation of U.S. military forces in operations aimed at dismantling fentanyl labs.
According to the newspaper, the proposal includes the involvement of elite units or U.S. intelligence personnel in joint operations with Mexican authorities.
In response to these allegations, Claudia Sheinbaum maintained that security operations in Mexico are the exclusive responsibility of national authorities and that any collaboration with the United States must respect Mexican sovereignty.
The topic arose from a question related to the case of Martha Alicia Méndez Aguilar, alias “La Diabla,” arrested in September 2025 in Ciudad Juárez.
Claudia Sheinbaum stated that she had no record of this matter at the Security Council and reiterated that, even in these types of investigations, there are no joint operations.
The case of “La Diabla” gained international attention because the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported at the time that the National Counterterrorism Center provided key information for her location.
According to the official statement, the arrest was carried out by Mexican authorities, with intelligence support shared by U.S. agencies.
In the case of Martha Alicia Méndez Aguilar, alias “La Diabla,” U.S. authorities identified her as the alleged head of a network dedicated to baby trafficking and other serious crimes.
According to investigations released after his arrest, he was accused of luring vulnerable pregnant women in order to later steal their newborns, as well as his possible connection to homicides and operations of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Source: elfinanciero
