Sheinbaum Points at US Over Sinaloa Bloodshed

Claudia Sheinbaum stood at the podium during her morning press conference and did something Mexican presidents rarely do. She named the United States Department of Justice directly as the cause of a cartel war.

"What is happening in Sinaloa because of the capture of El Mayo is that a conflict has been provoked inside the Sinaloa cartel, by the betrayal of one member of that group against another, through what we presume was interference in our country, without information to the Mexican government," she said.

The accusation was not subtle. Sheinbaum claimed the US Justice Department cut a unilateral deal with one faction of the Sinaloa cartel to capture Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada in July 2024. That operation, she argued, fractured the cartel's internal structure and triggered the wave of violence that has since left more than 3,000 dead. When the US Department of Justice makes deals with one criminal group against another, it generates internal betrayal and violence, Sheinbaum told reporters.

The White House has not responded to the accusation. But the Mexican president was not waiting for a reply. She pointed to the FBI's behavior at a trade fair where agents displayed a seized plane "as if it were their operation" as evidence that US agencies ran the capture without Mexican knowledge or consent. It was, she said, proof of interference.

Sheinbaum said she has no immediate plans to speak with President Donald Trump about the case. Instead, she is channeling the dispute through the Fiscalia General de la Republica and the US Department of Justice, the institutional counterparts for bilateral security matters. "Those are the counterparts we need to talk to," she said.

The numbers she cited tell a complicated story. Since she took office, fentanyl entering the US from Mexico has dropped 70%. Her government has made more than 50,000 arrests, including high-level targets. The national homicide rate sits at 50.4 per day, down from previous administrations. Fifteen thousand federal agents have deployed specifically to Sinaloa. But the violence keeps coming, and Sheinbaum argued that US unilateralism is the reason.

"Results are always better when we collaborate than when we act unilaterally, even violating sovereignty," she said.

She went further, invoking Felipe Calderon in a way that reframes the entire narrative. "Nobody is defending any drug trafficker. We would never do that, because we don't make deals like the ones Calderon made in his time. He protected the Sinaloa cartel against other groups and caused more violence."

The Calderon reference was deliberate. It recasts the current bloodshed not as a failure of the current administration but as the consequence of a long US-directed strategy that picked winners and losers among cartels. Sheinbaum's argument is straightforward. When the US decides which cartel to work with, it creates the conditions for the next war.

The stakes go beyond Sinaloa. Sheinbaum called for coordination with all 32 governors regardless of party affiliation. "We do not politicize security and justice," she said. She cited Chihuahua as a warning. Cooperation with the CIA there has reduced some crimes, but the state still has one of the highest homicide rates in the country.

What Sheinbaum is really doing is drawing a line. Her government will not tolerate foreign agencies operating inside Mexico without coordination. That includes the DEA, the FBI, and the CIA. The message is aimed at Washington but also at Mexico City's diplomatic corps, law enforcement partners, and the Mexican public. Sovereignty, in her framing, is not a talking point. It is a red line.

She left the door open. "In due time we can talk to Trump," she said. But for now, she is pressing through official channels. Her approach tests whether the US can accept Mexican sovereignty demands without sacrificing bilateral security cooperation. The answer will determine not just the fate of Sinaloa, but the future of the bilateral security relationship itself.

For Americans watching from across the border, the implications are real. If Sheinbaum is right, US unilateral action in Mexico is making the drug trade more violent, not less. That violence pushes migrants north, disrupts supply chains, and eventually reaches the communities Washington claims to be protecting.