The Mexican government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have rejected a CNN report that claimed that the CIA “facilitated” a “targeted assassination” of an alleged Sinaloa Cartel member in México state in March.
CNN’s report — published on Tuesday under the headline “Exclusive: CIA escalates secret war on cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico” — claims that the CIA “facilitated” an explosion that blew up a car traveling on a México state highway on March 28, killing the vehicle’s two occupants, one of whom was identified as Francisco Beltrán, an alleged mid-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel who was known as “El Payín.”
Vehicle explodes on highway near Mexico City’s AIFA airport, killing 2
“Mexican authorities have maintained extreme secrecy around the explosion, but multiple sources tell CNN that the attack was a targeted assassination, facilitated by CIA operations officers,” CNN reported.
“An explosive device had been hidden inside the vehicle, the State of Mexico’s Attorney General told CNN,” the report said.
The México state Attorney General’s Office denied that the attorney general had provided such information to CNN.
CNN also reported that the “Beltran operation was part of an expanded, and previously unreported, CIA campaign inside Mexico — spearheaded by the agency’s elite and secretive Ground Branch — to dismantle the entrenched cartel networks.”
The news outlet said that information came from the aforesaid sources as well as “two additional people familiar with the campaign.”
Again citing its sources, CNN wrote that “since last year, CIA operatives inside Mexico have directly participated in deadly attacks on several, mostly mid-level cartel members.”
In a little noticed comment last week, Trump said that a “land force” was already in place in Mexico to eliminate traffickers but didn’t elaborate on the nature of the force.
“Drugs coming in [to the US] by sea are down 97%,” he said. “And now we’ve started the land force, which…
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 13, 2026
“… The level of CIA involvement with operations has varied, according to the sources, from more passive intelligence sharing and providing general support to direct participation in assassination operations,” CNN said, making another explosive claim.
The news outlet didn’t specify what it meant by saying that the car explosion in México state was “facilitated by CIA operations officers.” While it (allegedly falsely) quoted México state Attorney General José Luis Cervantes Martínez as saying that an explosive device had been hidden inside the vehicle, CNN didn’t say who planted the bomb. Nor did it say whether the CIA had collaborated with Mexican authorities on the execution of the explosion that claimed the lives of Beltrán and another alleged Sinaloa Cartel member identified as Humberto Rangel Muñoz.
However, CNN suggested in one part of its report that it hadn’t.
“The operations may also be illegal under Mexican law — without the express permission of the federal government, foreign agents are barred from participating in law enforcement operations under the Mexican Constitution,” the media outlet wrote.
However, the CNN also wrote: “While multiple sources acknowledged that not everyone in the Mexican government is briefed on every operation — sometimes by design to maintain deniability — they also stressed that the CIA tends not to conduct operations unilaterally.”
After CNN published its report on Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Mexican authorities killed Beltrán.
“The C.I.A. provided intelligence and planning support for a recent operation against a cartel operative inside Mexico, but was not on the ground when Mexican authorities killed the man, according to a former official and others briefed on the operation,” the Times reported.
Citing the unnamed former official — presumably an ex-U.S. official — and “others briefed on the operation,” the Times wrote that “the C.I.A. provided intelligence on the cartel operative’s location and was involved in the planning of the assassination.”
“It is not clear to what extent the C.I.A. participated in the planning,” the Times reported.
“But C.I.A. officers were not present on the site of the attack and were not advising the Mexicans in person when the operation was carried out, the former official and those briefed said. They spoke under the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive operation and intelligence collection.”
The New York Times’ report suggests that Mexican authorities carried out an extrajudicial killing. CNN’s report indicates that U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion in January that U.S. forces would begin hitting cartels on land was not an empty threat but rather something that has indeed happened — perhaps even before Trump made the aforesaid declaration. However, Trump said last week that the United States would take action against cartels in Mexico if the Mexican government doesn’t do so itself. That remark appeared to indicate that U.S. forces have not been taking their own direct action against Mexican Cartels, six of which the U.S. government designated as foreign terrorist organizations last year. President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of the U.S. taking unilateral action against cartels, and has rejected offers from Trump to send the U.S. military to Mexico.
The publication of the CNN report comes at a time when the Mexico-U.S. security relationship is already strained. One of the main causes of the tension is the alleged participation last month of CIA agents in a drug lab raid in Chihuahua without the knowledge or authorization of the federal government.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the CIA’s participation in the dismantlement of a lab in Chihuahua was not a one-off. In that respect, the Los Angeles Times’ reporting is not dissimilar from that of CNN.
Another pressure point in the Mexico-U.S. relationship has arisen due to U.S. prosecutors’ accusations that Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current and former Sinaloa-based officials colluded with the Sinaloa Cartel on a drug trafficking conspiracy. Mexican authorities say that U.S. prosecutors haven’t provided sufficient proof to warrant the arrest of the 10 defendants, including Rocha, who is currently on leave.
Sheinbaum, García Harfuch and CIA reject CNN report
In a social media post on Tuesday, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch rejected CNN’s report.
“Regarding the version [of events] disseminated by CNN about an explosion that occurred in Tecámac, México state, in which the alleged involvement of the CIA in operations against cartels is claimed, the Government of Mexico categorically rejects any version [of events] that seeks to normalize, justify, or suggest the existence of lethal, covert, or unilateral operations by foreign agencies in national territory,” he wrote on X.
García Harfuch also wrote that “operational actions” in Mexico “correspond exclusively” to Mexican authorities.
“Any international cooperation is limited to the exchange of information, institutional coordination and formal mechanisms established by the government of Mexico, particularly through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the institutions of the Security Cabinet,” he wrote.
One example of the exchange of information between Mexico and the United States is that the U.S. provided intelligence for the operation in February against Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, who died after being shot by the Mexican military.
CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons also rejected CNN’s report.
“This is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk,” she wrote on her official X account.
The denials by García Harfuch and Lyons that the CIA was involved in a lethal operation in Mexico may well be true. But if the CIA was indeed involved in facilitating or planning the explosion in México state in late March, the Mexican government and the CIA itself could have their own reasons to deny that it was the case.
On Wednesday morning, Sheinbaum also responded to CNN’s report.
She first noted that the México state Attorney General’s Office rejected that the state attorney general provided information to CNN.
Sheinbaum subsequently described CNN’s report as “really sensationalist” and false.
“Imagine the size of the fabrication,” she said before accusing CNN of lying.
Sheinbaum aclara que son falsas las afirmaciones de CNN sobre la CIA… “imagínense el tamaño de la mentira que hasta la CIA salió a desmentirlo”
La presidenta @Claudiashein salió a aclarar que no es verdad que la CIA esté interviniendo en la lucha contra el crimen dentro de… pic.twitter.com/hlgf1EFZEO
— Político MX (@politicomx) May 13, 2026
Sheinbaum said it’s “false that CIA agents operate in [Mexican] territory,” although she acknowledged that there are “permits” that allow U.S. agencies to work in Mexico as long as they comply with Mexican laws.
She suggested that CNN’s report was motivated by a desire to cause problems in the relationship between Mexico and the United States.
Sheinbaum also rejected The New York Times’ report claiming that Mexican authorities carried out the operation that killed Beltrán and Rangel in México state.
The claim in the report is “absurd,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that the suggestion that the Mexican government has “a special area dedicated to planting bombs to eliminate criminal groups is a fabrication the size of the universe.”
She asserted that The New York Times has a habit of fabricating stories, and “now” CNN is “as well.”
“… We’re always going to tell the truth,” Sheinbaum added.
“… This is our responsibility to the people of Mexico and we always act within the framework of the law, always,” she said.
With reports from CNN and The New York Times
