The official version: training, not operation
Prosecutor César Jáuregui came out to clear up the mess. He says that President Claudia Sheinbaum is right: no one warned about the participation of North American agents in the seizure of the drug laboratory. Because? Because, according to him, they just weren’t there.
“She is right, it was never reported that there was participation of North American agents in the operation, because there were no North American agents in the operation,” said Jáuregui.
The official story paints a clear scenario. A Mexican operation, with 40 elements from the AEI and Sedena, locates and destroys one of the largest laboratories found. Eight or nine hours later and very far from there, two American instructors who were doing training work meet with local personnel. Then the fatal accident occurs.
The clash of stories and what doesn’t add up
This is where journalistic memory sounds an alarm. The president said that it was a decision of the Chihuahua government and that the federal government was not aware. The prosecutor now agrees with her, but the sequence raises uncomfortable questions.
Trainers meeting agents right after a mega-drug operation? A fatal accident hours later? Jáuregui insists on the limits: they do not operate in the US and the US does not operate here. Just information sharing and training, especially on drones.
But the shadow of the incident has already activated major protocols. The case was turned over to the FGR because it is federal and it is being investigated whether there was a violation of the national security law. The state prosecutor mentions that, in the area, he could be related to a criminal group from Sinaloa.
Meanwhile, the state and federal versions are trying to align after the fact. The question that remains is simpler: in a high-risk operation, what exactly were those foreign trainers doing in such complicated terrain? The ‘training tasks’ had never ended like this.
