On numerous occasions, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson has taken to social media to praise the Mexican government’s actions against organized crime and highlight its close collaboration with the Trump administration on security issues.
On Monday, Johnson sent a different message via his X account, one clearly directed to President Claudia Sheinbaum, even though the ambassador didn’t mention her by name, as he often does in his social media posts.
The fight against cartels should unite us, not divide us. People on both sides of our border want to live safely and in peace. They deserve freedom from the intimidation, corruption, and fear that the cartels inflict. Every moment spent turning this shared security challenge…
— Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) June 1, 2026
“The fight against cartels should unite us, not divide us,” he wrote.
“People on both sides of our border want to live safely and in peace. They deserve freedom from the intimidation, corruption, and fear that the cartels inflict. Every moment spent turning this shared security challenge into a political dispute is a missed opportunity to strengthen our partnership and protect the people we serve.”
The timing of the post was telling. It came the day after Sheinbaum declared that Mexico “is not anyone’s piñata” and railed against U.S. interference in Mexican affairs during a forceful speech at a large rally in Mexico City to mark the second anniversary of her election.
Sheinbaum is not happy that U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officers allegedly participated in a drug lab raid in the northern state of Chihuahua in April without the knowledge or authorization of her government. She has expressed her dissatisfaction with U.S. authorities for requesting the arrest and extradition of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and various other Sinaloa-based current and former officials without providing hard proof supporting the drug trafficking accusations against them. She has asserted that U.S. media reports claiming that the CIA was involved in a targeted assassination in Mexico are not only false, but part of an orchestrated international campaign against her government.
All this, Sheinbaum believes, amounts to U.S. meddling in Mexican affairs. All the while, she is forced to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump’s semi-regular threats to take unilateral action against Mexican cartels on Mexican soil.
At her rally speech on Sunday, Sheinbaum made her strongest statements yet against alleged U.S. interference in Mexico. Among them:
- “The Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the National Security Law establish with precision that no foreign agent may carry out tasks that correspond exclusively to Mexican authorities. Whoever comes to our country must do so respecting our sovereignty, accrediting themselves in accordance with the law and subject to our regulations.”
- “An office of the United States Department of Justice issued an urgent request for the arrest for extradition purposes of 10 Mexican citizens — including a sitting governor, a sitting mayor, and a sitting senator — without publicly presenting evidence to support the request. An action of that magnitude has no precedent in the history of our bilateral relationship.”
- “We must ask — and it is a legitimate question: … [Does the U.S. have] a genuine, legitimate interest in helping Mexico? Is it a genuine commitment to combating organized crime? Or are we witnessing sectors of the American far right using our country to position themselves ahead of their 2026 elections? Or perhaps they intend to influence the 2027 elections in our country? These are not rhetorical questions.”
- “Let it be heard loud and clear, Mexico doesn’t accept interference. We are a free, independent and sovereign country.”
Johnson’s social media post on Monday indicates that he believes that Sheinbaum is creating a “political dispute” between Mexico and the United States by denouncing alleged U.S. interference in Mexican affairs. The ambassador evidently thinks — or at least publicly indicates — that the issues the Mexican president spoke about on Sunday, and has been speaking about for weeks, should not be an impediment to the additional strengthening of a bilateral security cooperation that he himself has described as “historic.”
For Sheinbaum, things are not that simple. While she said on Sunday that security cooperation with the United States would continue, the president evidently feels she cannot ignore, or even downplay, U.S. actions that she sees as violations of Mexican law, the Mexican Constitution and Mexican sovereignty, and/or blatant examples of U.S. interference. She frequently vows to stand up for Mexico and the Mexican people — no matter what — and with her words on Sunday, she did that emphatically.
“Strongest rhetoric I can remember hearing from Sheinbaum,” Brian Winter, a political analyst and editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, wrote on X.
Sheinbaum responds to Johnson
At her Tuesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum took the opportunity to respond to Johnson, a former Green Beret and CIA officer to whom the Mexican government sent a protest note after the CIA’s alleged participation in the security operation in Chihuahua in April came to light.
She said that her government agrees with part of the ambassador’s social media message “because we have to work together when we have shared problems.”
“One of those is obviously violence caused by organized crime, and on that, as we have always said, we seek collaboration and coordination in order to be able to make progress together — they act in their territory and we act in … [our] territory,” she said.
Sheinbaum subsequently stressed that “it’s important for ambassadors to stick to the issue of coordination and collaboration.”
“Ambassadors have to be respectful of a country’s internal matters,” she said, making it clear that she believes that Johnson had overstepped the mark.
“Our ambassador in the United States, our ambassador in France, our ambassadors in any place in the world — Australia, India — don’t offer opinions on a country’s political issues because our constitution clearly establishes [the right to] self-determination … and respect and non-intervention, ” Sheinbaum said.
“We have to also remember that it’s important for the [U.S.] ambassador to stick to bilateral issues and to respect the internal affairs of our country because Mexico’s affairs correspond to Mexicans,” she added.
Sheinbaum’s remarks on Tuesday came a day after she said that she didn’t believe Trump was leading the meddling and media “offensive” against Mexico.
She also stressed that her administration wants “a good relationship with the United States government.”
As things stand, however, the bilateral relationship between the North American neighbors and trade partners is certainly strained.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
