“For the good of everyone, may the other Trump return,” former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador concluded in a letter made public on Wednesday night to support President Claudia Sheinbaum and reflect on Donald Trump, the occupant of the White House. Beyond who wrote it, the letter reflects his thinking, and with a more relaxed style—now that he is no longer head of the Executive Branch—it expresses surprise that the Trump 2.0 now in Washington has little in common with the version 1.0 he once knew.
Indeed, they are very different. His political priorities have changed, and now, as López Obrador pointed out, under the designation of “narco-terrorist,” which is presented as a threat to U.S. national security, authorities supposedly have “a license to kidnap, hunt down, and carry out extraterritorial justice against anyone without evidence, trial, or sentence.” These words form the core of López Obrador’s reflection. He longs for the Trump with whom he worked due to immigration-related needs, while fearing the direction in which the current Trump may be heading.
López Obrador broke his silence because the conditions he had imposed on himself for avoiding public commentary no longer exist. His letter reflects concern, and what he once viewed as a probability now appears to him as a possibility. Since the 2018 transition of power, the then-president reportedly spoke with collaborators of Sheinbaum who would later occupy positions in the security cabinet, asking them to look after his children and halt any investigation involving him.
Alejandro Gertz Manero, known as a prosecutor who pursued members of his political family more aggressively than criminals, was reportedly forced to resign last year after refusing to stop an investigation involving Andrés Manuel López Beltrán and businessman Raúl Rocha Cantú, related to fuel smuggling. Confidence that threats had been neutralized reportedly disappeared when the U.S. Department of Justice accused Rubén Rocha Moya of receiving support from the Sinaloa Cartel in order to win the governorship in 2021.
The public letter appeared roughly fourteen hours after the Los Angeles Times reported that the governors of Sonora and Tamaulipas, Alfonso Durazo and Américo Villarreal, were under investigation in the United States for alleged links to organized crime and fuel-smuggling schemes. Similar reports in the Mexican press had been dismissed as “science fiction,” but gained credibility once they appeared in U.S. media outlets.
López Obrador, it could be said, felt that the pressure was getting closer. According to intelligence information cited in both Mexico and the United States, Rocha Moya served as a link to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada when he led the Sinaloa Cartel, and allegedly participated in negotiations over political candidacies in northwestern Mexico. Durazo, whose alleged ties to that organization have reportedly been monitored since he served under President Vicente Fox, was said to have received organized-crime funds during the 2018 presidential election campaign and to have requested the release of Ovidio Guzmán López during the 2019 “Culiacanazo.”
The pursuit of governors who could fall into the category of “terrorists,” following the U.S. designation of six Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, appears to have unsettled López Obrador. He may now realize that what he once dismissed as Trump’s political rhetoric was serious.
According to the article, López Obrador occupies the top position in what U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating as a political-criminal structure that allegedly collaborated with Cuban intelligence.
López Obrador is said to be the subject of two open investigations in the United States. One reportedly includes two electronic transfers received by officials at the National Palace days after he greeted the mother of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in March 2020 in La Tuna, a community in the municipality of Badiraguato. Prosecutors in New York are also said to possess testimony from Jesús “El Rey” Zambada, brother of El Mayo, regarding money allegedly delivered to López Obrador’s government in Mexico City in exchange for protection. In addition, recordings reportedly exist of Sinaloa Cartel financiers speaking with officials from Nicolás Maduro’s government and mentioning connections with López Obrador associates working in the National Palace.
This represents only part of what has reportedly been documented in the United States over several years concerning López Obrador. However, the article argues that direct action against him remains unlikely because of the potential instability it could create for President Sheinbaum. According to the author, he is the individual that agencies such as the DEA and CIA would most like to detain, although whether that could happen remains uncertain.
López Obrador’s name has not appeared as a person of interest in meetings between officials from both countries or in President Sheinbaum’s meetings with members of the U.S. cabinet. Attention has reportedly focused instead on governors, party leaders, and other figures associated with López Obrador’s political movement, particularly Senator Adán Augusto López.
Within the political-criminal organizational chart described by the article, General Audomaro Martínez, former director of the National Intelligence Center, is presented as López Obrador’s second-in-command. Through fuel-smuggling figure Sergio Carmona, he allegedly maintained contact with various cartels. Below them are said to be Adán Augusto López Hernández and Leonel Cota, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, followed by several current cabinet secretaries, former cabinet members, and directors of state-owned institutions.
According to the article, the Department of Justice has been organizing intelligence information into legal cases that describe protection and collaboration networks between organized crime and politicians, as well as their alleged involvement in electoral campaigns, primarily in support of Morena. The author concludes that these investigative paths ultimately lead back to López Obrador.
Source: informador
