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🚫 Sheinbaum rejects CNN and NYT reporting: CNN reported on Tuesday that CIA officers “facilitated” a targeted killing of two alleged Sinaloa Cartel members in México state in late March, while the NYT reported that Mexican authorities carried out the attack with CIA involvement. Sheinbaum denied both accounts, calling the reports false.
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⚖️ Sovereignty goes both ways on extraditions: Pushing back on U.S. pressure over the indictment against Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, Sheinbaum said Washington routinely demands proof before acting on arrest requests from Mexico. She cited her own petition to the State Department for the arrest of two suspects in the 2014 Ayotzinapa case, and highlighted that Mexico has requested the extradition from the U.S. of two dual citizens allegedly linked to a fuel smuggling network. She said that no response to the latter request has been received.
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🌐 Coordinated international campaign? Asked whether the simultaneous CNN/NYT reports and Senate testimony by DEA chief Terrance Cole — who called an indictment against Rocha “just the start” of U.S. action against Mexican officials — amounted to a synchronized media offensive, Sheinbaum answered, “Yes.” The president also railed against an “international right-wing movement” that she claimed is agitating for the “defeat” and “failure” of her government.
Why today’s mañanera matters
President Sheinbaum’s rejection of two media reports — one by CNN, the other by The New York Times — was the most significant development at today’s mañanera. She claimed that reporting by the two U.S. media outlets was false. CNN reported on Tuesday that CIA operations officers “facilitated” a “targeted assassination” in late March — an attack in which two alleged Sinaloa Cartel members were killed when the car in which they were traveling in México state blew up. The New York Times reported that Mexican authorities were responsible for the explosion, and that the CIA was “involved in the planning of the assassination.”
Click here to read MND’s story on the reporting by CNN and The New York Times, and Sheinbaum’s rejection of it:
Mexico rejects CNN report accusing CIA of orchestrating cartel assassination on Mexican soil
Also of note at today’s mañanera were Sheinbaum’s remarks regarding U.S. authorities’ apparent demand for proof against criminal suspects that Mexican authorities want arrested and extradited.
The point the president was making is that the U.S. authorities have acted in the same way that Mexican authorities have acted after the unsealing of a U.S. indictment accusing Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya — who is currently on leave — and nine other current and former Sinaloa-based officials of drug trafficking in league with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Sheinbaum has endorsed the view of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Attorney General’s Office that there is currently insufficient proof to arrest the 10 suspects for the purpose of extradition to the United States.
Sheinbaum: US has asked for proof when Mexican authorities requested arrests of people wanted in Mexico
Sheinbaum told reporters that she was informed by Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Velasco that there are “many cases” in which Mexican authorities have requested the arrest of people in the United States who are under investigation in Mexico.
“And the United States has told us: ‘Within the framework of our laws we need proof,” she said.
“I’m going to give you a case,” Sheinbaum said before telling reporters that she had personally submitted a request to the U.S. State Department for the arrest of two people wanted in connection with the 2014 Ayotzinapa case in which 43 students were abducted and presumably killed in Guerrero.
“And there are other cases,” she said.
“So they know and we know that everything has to be within the framework of respect [for sovereignty] and their laws and our laws,” Sheinbaum said.
The president subsequently said that Mexican authorities are requesting the extradition from the United States of two dual citizens allegedly linked to a “huachicol fiscal” fuel smuggling scheme.
“They are very important in the investigation — businessmen who, among others, put together the network to be able to bring fuel into the country illegally,” she said.
“We don’t yet have a response [to the extradition request],” Sheinbaum said.
An international campaign targeting Mexico?
A reporter noted that in addition to the publication of the CNN and New York Times reports, various U.S. officials, including DEA Administrator Terrance Cole, spoke about Mexico during appearances in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
Cole said that “there is no doubt that the narco-traffickers and high-ranking government officials in Mexico have been in bed for years.”
“But all of a sudden, we’re paying attention to it,” said Cole, who asserted that the U.S. accusations against Rocha and other Mexican officials are “just the start about what’s to come in Mexico.”
DEA ADVIERTE: ACUSACIÓN CONTRA ROCHA MOYA “ES SOLO EL COMIENZO”
La DEA aseguró ante el Congreso de EU que la investigación contra Rubén Rocha Moya marca el inicio de acciones contra políticos ligados al narco.
El gobernador con licencia de Sinaloa enfrenta señalamientos por… pic.twitter.com/g1lsRLp2Cg
— Cesar Gutiérrez Priego M.R. (@cesargutipri) May 12, 2026
In light of the publication of the CNN and New York Times reports, and the remarks made by Cole and other U.S. officials on Tuesday, the aforementioned reporter asked Sheinbaum whether she believed “synchronized swimming” was taking place — i.e., an “international media” campaign designed to “impose narratives in Mexico.”
“Yes,” the president responded.
“That’s what we’re saying. There are a lot of people who have come to an agreement. This international right-wing movement we talk about moves in many places in the world and there are a lot of people who are betting on the defeat and failure of the Mexican government for ideological reasons and for political reasons,” she said.
Sheinbaum’s remarks came around two weeks after the publication of leaked audio recordings that suggest that U.S. President Donald Trump, the Israeli government and Argentine President Javier Milei have teamed up to spread fake news in an effort to destabilize Mexico and other progressive left-leaning Latin American governments.
As Mexico News Daily reported on Monday, the allegations — first published by the Spanish digital newspaper Diario Red in late April — also point to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, current Honduran President Nasry Asfura and his vice president, María Antonieta Mejía, as well as the president of the Honduran Parliament, Tomás Zambrano.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
