“It’s not a matter of who gives the order”
Claudia Sheinbaum came out this Thursday. The president flatly rejected that she had given the direct order to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho. His argument is simple: rules are now followed.
“It is not a matter of who gives the order. In the past, execution orders were issued outside the law, that was the war against drugs,” he said during his morning conference.
Translation: my government does not operate like the previous ones. According to Sheinbaum, before it was common for the presidency or national security to give the green light to eliminate objectives. Now, he insists, everything goes through the judges.
Operation with institutional seal
The president described an operation of months, perhaps years, where US intelligence played a key role—only information, without operations on Mexican soil. The Sedena was in charge of executing the court order.
“It was a follow-up of many months… the moment they see that the arrest is feasible, they carry it out. But it is not that someone said: ‘Now this’.”
A clear nod to mark distance from the epic and media style of the so-called war on drugs. There are no lone heroes giving orders from a desk here, he suggests.
The curious thing comes later. Asked if the arrest of El Mencho’s romantic partner was what made it possible to locate him on February 22, Sheinbaum responded with an almost perfect evasiveness: “I’m not sure, we’re happy to provide the information.”
A phrase that smells like a public relations manual. It promises future transparency while remaining silent in the present. The final message is clear: this was judicial and institutional work, not a presidential decision. The question that remains is who, then, coordinates when multiple agencies and a foreign country are involved.
