Mexico “is not anyone’s piñata,” President Claudia Sheinbaum declared on Sunday as she railed against U.S. interference in Mexican affairs during a large rally in Mexico City to mark the second anniversary of her election.
Speaking to a crowd of 130,000 people gathered in front of the Monument to the Revolution, Sheinbaum presented an impassioned defense of Mexican sovereignty in light of the CIA’s alleged participation in a drug lab raid in Chihuahua in April and U.S. prosecutors’ request for the arrest of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and various other current and former officials accused of drug trafficking in league with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Caminamos juntas y juntos para seguir haciendo historia. ¡Viva México! pic.twitter.com/cF6BQHx0w2
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) June 1, 2026
“Let it be heard loud and clear, Mexico doesn’t accept interference. We are a free, independent and sovereign country,” she proclaimed, prompting an enthusiastic response from rally attendees, including chants of “you are not alone.”
More than 40 minutes into her address, after speaking at length about government achievements and positive developments across a range of areas including the economy, education and healthcare, Sheinbaum turned her attention to what she called “important issues that we think are essential to share with you.”
“Friends: For some months now, we have been the target of a media offensive and million-dollar campaigns on social media. This is no coincidence,” she said.
“… Behind these campaigns are national and international conservative sectors that have never accepted that Mexico recovered its dignity and chose to fully exercise its independence,” Sheinbaum said.
The president asserted that campaigns against her government — and representing the interests of “foreign and national conservative sectors seeking to recover lost privileges or stop the transformation supported by the popular majority” of Mexico — intensified after the death of two CIA officers and two security officials from Chihuahua in a car accident following a drug lab operation on the weekend of April 18 and 19.
“In light of these events, the Federal Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into possible violations of Mexican law,” said Sheinbaum, who has reiterated that the federal government didn’t authorize or have knowledge of the CIA’s alleged participation in the security operation alongside Chihuahua forces.
“And here we want to be very clear: 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,” she said.
Referring to the April 29 unsealing of an indictment against Rocha and nine other Sinaloa-based current and former officials, Sheinbaum said that “a few days later, something even more serious occurred.”
“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,” she said.
“An action of that magnitude has no precedent in the history of our bilateral relationship,” Sheinbaum said.
“And so we must ask — and it is a legitimate question: Is this 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,” the president said just two days after Mexico’s Congress approved a reform that allows the nullification of elections tainted by foreign interference.
“Mexico is not anyone’s piñata,” Sheinbaum added.
The president went on to say that when verdicts of guilt or innocence are “dictated from abroad,” when attempts at “pressuring our institutions from the outside” are made, and when the idea that a foreign country can intervene in Mexican affairs is normalized, “we are no longer talking about cooperation, we are talking about interference.”
“… It is legitimate to question the true motives behind extradition proceedings targeting elected officials. Because — let’s be clear — first they come for some, then for others, until offices of the [U.S.] Justice Department become the primary elector in Mexico. We cannot allow that,” she said.
“Mexico’s history knows where that path leads. Interventions have never delivered justice or well-being,” Sheinbaum said.
“Therefore, we must not fall for the trick. Let this be clear: we will never defend corruption or collusion with crime. Never. That is what Mexico’s state institutions are for: the Federal Attorney General’s Office and the judiciary, she said.
“So firm has our fight against corruption and criminal collusion been that the Attorney General’s Office has proceeded against officials from all political parties when their ties to criminal activity have been proven,” Sheinbaum added.
The president’s remarks on Sunday denouncing foreign interference in Mexico were her strongest statements yet against the United States’ meddling (or alleged meddling) in Mexican affairs. Although she has reiterated that her government won’t protect anyone who has committed a crime, Sheinbaum has been accused by opposition politicians and others of providing cover for Rocha and other Morena party officials accused of drug trafficking by U.S. prosecutors. She has endorsed the Federal Attorney General’s Office’s declaration that U.S. authorities have not provided sufficient evidence to arrest Rocha and his co-defendants.
As she spoke at her rally on Sunday — held two days before the actual second anniversary of her election — a large banner was unfurled from a nearby building. “Claudia Sheinbaum protects narco-leaders,” read the banner, which featured images of the president and Rocha, who is currently on leave as governor of Sinaloa, one of Mexico’s most violent states.
In addition to strong rhetoric, a commitment to keep collaborating with the US
While Sheinbaum denounced the United States’ meddling in Mexican affairs, she also vowed to continue security collaboration with the Trump administration.
“We believe in cooperation between nations, in the exchange of information, and in joint efforts to tackle shared problems. But cooperation does not mean subordination. Collaboration does not mean submission,” she said.
“The fight against organized crime is a shared responsibility of all states. But that fight cannot be used as an excuse to undermine fundamental principles of international law, such as non-intervention and respect for the self-determination of peoples. We will continue to collaborate to prevent drugs from crossing the border — out of humanist conviction and because we understand the pain that problem causes in U.S. families,” Sheinbaum said.
“… It is better to work together as trading partners, respecting one another and strengthening our shared interests with mutual respect for our sovereignty. But let this be absolutely clear: Mexico does not allow interference in our internal affairs, because we do not meddle in the internal affairs of other nations. That is the constitutional principle of non-intervention,” she said.
Sheinbaum also reiterated that, “to help us reduce violence in Mexico,” it is “essential” that the United States “stop the illegal trafficking of weapons into our country” and “address the serious problem of drug use in their territory.”
Sheinbaum outlines her government’s ‘main achievements’
On a stage erected in front of the Monument to the Revolution in Plaza de la República, the same square where presidential candidate Luis Donald Colosio made a famous speech in March 1994 just 17 days before he was assassinated, Sheinbaum began her address on Sunday by noting that on June 2, 2024, nearly 36 million Mexicans voted in favor of continuing on “the path of transformation begun by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” who was in office from 2018 to 2024.
“With that support, I assumed the honor and enormous responsibility of leading the continuation of the fourth transformation of public life — a mandate born of the popular will, of the conviction of millions of Mexicans who stated clearly that “the past of privileges, corruption, decadence, and abandonment of the homeland and the people must not return,’” she said.
“And on that day, something else occurred that will be forever etched in the memory of our nation: for the first time, a woman reached the presidency of the republic. It was a victory for the women of Mexico, but above all, the victory of a people who decided to keep making history,” said Sheinbaum, who now leads the so-called “fourth transformation,” or 4T, political movement founded by López Obrador and supported by the ruling Morena party and its allies.
“Two years after that magnificent and historic triumph of the people, I appear before you again to be accountable, as we have always done — face to face with the people, in the public square,” she said.
On a warm day in Mexico City, Sheinbaum ran through a long list of the government’s “main achievements” since its six-year term began 20 months ago.
Among those achievements — and other positive developments in Mexico — she highlighted an increase in tax collection; record foreign investment in the first quarter of 2026; low unemployment; declining inflation; and a “strong” Mexican peso.”
Sheinbaum also touted a decline in public debt; the boom in export revenue; and the increase in international visitors.
“Mexico is in vogue,” she said, using a phrase she has used before when speaking about the country’s popularity.
In an address broadcast in public squares across Mexico — with the exception of Coahuila, where elections will take place this Sunday — Sheinbaum also spoke about “the labor spring” workers have experienced “since 2019” due to increases in the minimum wage and other pro-worker initiatives, such as the approval of a gradual transition to a 40-hour workweek and the doubling of paid vacation time.
In addition, the president touted her government’s welfare programs, its commitment to austerity, its support for farmers, its healthcare and housing initiatives, its support for Indigenous communities, its “rescuing” of Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission, its construction of new highways, railroads and water infrastructure, its commitment to making access to water a “fundamental right” and its success in reducing violence in Mexico.
“In 20 months, we’ve reduced homicides by 49% and high-impact crimes by 20%,” Sheinbaum said, referring to data that compares May with September 2024, the final month of López Obrador’s presidency.
“And we will keep delivering results on security — attending to young people and ending impunity — so that all Mexicans can move safely throughout our territory,” she said.
Toward the end of her 65-minute address, Sheinbaum declared that “nothing and no one will stop the transformation of our homeland.”
“That is the new reality,” she said.
“Mexico is a democratic country. It is false that ‘we want to be a dictatorship’ or that ‘we support censorship.’ Quite the opposite. We may well be the country that enjoys the greatest freedoms in the world, because this movement was born of the people, walks with the people, and governs for the people,” Sheinbaum said.
“These are no longer the times of privilege and corruption,” Sheinbaum said before she reaffirmed her commitment to defending the sovereignty and independence of Mexico, pledged to govern in accordance with the will of the people, and wished “long life” to the “fourth transformation of public life in Mexico,” and to “the dignity of the people of Mexico” — and Mexico itself.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
