The State Department’s review of the operations of 53 Mexican consulates located in the United States has begun, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is particularly focused on 20 consulates in Mexico where consuls or vice-consuls have been identified as active members of the Morena party who have used diplomatic spaces to organize and conduct political and partisan activities in the United States.
According to U.S. sources, violations of diplomatic treaties allegedly committed by several Mexican Foreign Service officials since the previous presidential term are being documented, and a report will be presented soon that could lead the Trump administration to order the closure of several Mexican consulates for engaging in political campaigning within U.S. territory. Most of the violations involve partisan acts and meetings of Morena Exterior, which, despite being a political organization, had access to the consular network to conduct political work with Mexican migrant communities.
Among the consulates being reviewed, one of the first on the list is the one in Miami, where the presence of former Chiapas governor Rutilio Escandón is being questioned by the State Department not only because of the Mexican consul’s political and activist background, but also because of his family ties to Adán Augusto López, the Morena party senator who is being investigated by the U.S. government for his involvement in the so-called “tax-stealing” scheme that operated from the United States.
In fact, Secretary Rubio’s office has a complaint against Consul Rutilio Escandón for alleged ties to drug trafficking. The complaint was filed last year by Willy Ochoa, the PRI member who served as interim governor of Chiapas, directly accusing Escandón of having “made a pact and handed over” the state to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and other criminal organizations during his administration, which ran from 2018 to 2024. Ochoa alleges that Escandón was strongly supported by his brother-in-law, Adán Augusto, and by former President López Obrador.
Another consul under scrutiny by the State Department is Froylán Yescas Navarrete in McAllen, a former member of the Morena party. Before being appointed in 2019 by then-Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Yescas Navarrete had served as Secretary of Political Training for Morena’s National Executive Committee. There is also the case of the Mexican consul in Sacramento, California, Christian Tonatiuh González, who, despite having no history of political activism, recorded a video on May 9 at the consulate with Alejandro Robles Gómez, the Morena party’s secretary abroad. In the video, the party leader speaks about the persecution of migrants under the Trump administration and utters the campaign slogan: “It is an honor to be with Claudia Hoy.”
In several Mexican consulates, it is not only the consul and their actions that are being reviewed by the State Department, but also the role of vice consuls or officials in charge of political affairs, who in many cases are responsible for and carry out campaigning on behalf of Morena among the Mexican communities they serve.
Sources consulted indicate that Secretary Rubio’s office is documenting cases in which Mexican consular offices, since the previous presidential term, have operated politically during events such as the U.S. presidential elections, or by organizing marches and protests in some U.S. cities against President Trump’s policies, through networks that connect Morena’s operations abroad with the resources or facilities of Mexican consular offices.
President Sheinbaum has publicly complained that the Trump administration has not shared information with them about its decision to review the operations of the 53 Mexican consulates and has denied accusations that they are foreign political bases. “It’s completely false. First, we have no information, and second, there’s no reason for that to be the case because they are very respectful of U.S. policy,” the Mexican president declared on May 8.
However, the review is a reality and is already underway, and US media outlets such as Telemundo have cited statements from State Department officials asserting that “several Mexican consulates could be closed by order of the US government” if it is documented that they were used at any time for political and partisan activities, including to operate against the policies and decisions of the Trump administration.
In the history of US-Mexico relations, the closure of consulates has only occurred during times of crisis or tension, but it is usually the country hosting the consulates that decides to close them, as happened during the Mexican Revolution or during the Covid pandemic when the United States ordered the closure of its diplomatic missions in Mexico. But, until now, the closure of consulates in the neighboring country by a unilateral decision and based on accusations of violating diplomatic treaties is completely unprecedented. Should Mexican offices in the United States be closed on orders from President Trump, the fracture in the already strained bilateral relationship would be fully exposed.
“If Mexico can’t do it, we will,” President Trump said last week. And without a clear and intelligent strategy from President Sheinbaum’s government, which has become entrenched in defending its political movement and a sovereignty that is now in the hands of organized crime, it seems that Washington has already begun doing the work the president refuses to do.
INSIDIOUS NOTES… Speaking of the president, in the meeting she held with the deputies and senators of Morena and their allies on May 7 at the National Palace, the president asked those in the ruling party to remain united and made a rather unusual request: “Don’t make fun of our colleagues who have lost their U.S. visas. We shouldn’t make fun of that, and we must show solidarity,” the president commented in her speech that day. And the number of Morena politicians and leaders joining the list of those “denied visas” by the neighboring country is growing, and although some are hiding it and not making it public, the truth is that today Morena members are not welcome in the United States, and even the president herself has privately advised her staff “not to set foot on U.S. soil at all.” The nervousness and worry gripping members of the Morena party, who, like many Mexicans, were fond of traveling to the neighboring country to the north, is more than justified, given the saying that “fear doesn’t travel on a donkey,” and it certainly doesn’t have a U.S. visa. Speaking of visas, last Monday the governor of Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal, again denied that his U.S. visa had been canceled. “Yes, I do have a visa. I’ve attended several events in the United States. We’ve been to the national section of the UN to discuss the 2023 agenda. We’ve toured the state of Texas, and we’ve also had a presence and connections in Laredo, Texas, and participated in various events,” the Morena governor asserted. Incidentally, the sister of the governor of Tamaulipas, the current mayor of Tampico, Mónica Villarreal, hasn’t said whether or not her visa was canceled, but it was quite striking that the Tampico mayor didn’t attend the recent sister city celebrations between Houston and the Port of Tampico, held in the Texas city. Instead, she sent her Director of Tourism and a Director of Institutional Relations from the City Hall in her place. Did the mayor of Tampico not have time to go to Houston, or did she not have a visa? And speaking of visas, let’s move on to beans. It turns out that at the protest by bean producers in Zacatecas last Sunday, which ended with arrests and police beatings of the demonstrators, among those protesting, in addition to the legitimate farmers, were many officials from the Zacatecas city hall, headed by the PAN (National Action Party) mayor, Miguel Ángel Varela.
Source: eluniversal
