An accident that changed everything
What began as a tragic traffic accident in the mountains of Chihuahua has become the first big test for the relationship between Claudia Sheinbaum and Donald Trump. Two CIA agents dead, and now no one knows exactly what they were doing there.
“There cannot be agents from any United States government institution operating in the field… This is not part of the protocol,” Sheinbaum stated without expressly mentioning the CIA.
The Mexican president is clear: this was an unauthorized operation. And he says this while analyzing sanctions against the Chihuahua government for allowing it. The message to Washington is strong.
The contradictions that do not add up
But this is where the drama gets good. The official Mexican versions collide with each other like those pickup trucks in the ravine.
State prosecutor César Jáuregui first said that the embassy’s “instructing officers” died returning from the operation. The next day, he recanted: they said they joined later. What are we left with?
Meanwhile, from Washington, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt asked Sheinbaum for “a little more empathy” for the death of two Americans. As if this were about regrets and not about violated sovereignty.
“Considering everything the United States is doing under this president to stop the scourge of drug trafficking,” Leavitt added on Fox News.
But the Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, was more direct: “There have never been foreign agents basically participating in a federal operation. The law does not allow it.”
A murky legacy that resurfaces
The CIA in Mexico has a history. From the dark times of coups in Latin America to the 2012 shooting against an embassy van. Always operating in the shadows, until something goes wrong.
During the López Obrador government, they were stopped with a law that requires prior reporting to the Mexican government. Law that, apparently, someone decided to ignore.
Now Sheinbaum faces his first major geopolitical dilemma: how to respond to a power that operates in his territory without permission, while maintaining strategic cooperation against the cartels.
The Senate has already called the opposition governor Maru Campos to explain herself. The “missing” letter has already flown to the American ambassador. And everyone is watching how Trump, who until now remained silent, will react.
As my father told me: in politics, accidents are rarely accidental. This appears to be the prologue to a much longer chapter.
