The security situation in Sinaloa and U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that “the cartels are running Mexico” were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum discussed at her Wednesday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s Feb. 4 mañanera.
‘Our policy is not military confrontation’
An international correspondent from the BBC told Sheinbaum that he spent the last week in Sinaloa. He noted that “despite an enormous military presence” in the state, “there is appalling violence every day.”
“Murders, assassinations, terrible mutilations. What’s it going to take for your government to bring that violence under control?” asked Quentin Sommerville.
“The number of homicides has declined,” Sheinbaum responded, although Sinaloa was one of just six Mexican states that recorded more murders last year than in 2024.
“… In recent months, we managed to reduce, maintain, the number of homicides,” she said.
Sheinbaum explained that the high levels of violence in Sinaloa in recent times were triggered by the “splitting” of a criminal group (the Sinaloa Cartel) after one of its “bosses” (Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada) was arrested in the United States (following his alleged kidnapping by one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán).
“That caused an internal battle,” she said, referring to the bloody war between the “Los Chapos” and “Los Mayos” factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“What do we do? We seek to avoid an impact on civilians, on the [ordinary] people [of Sinaloa],” Sheinbaum said.
Government deploys 1,600 troops to Sinaloa following attack on legislators
“Our policy is not military confrontation because that was already tried in Mexico, between 2006 and 2012, and what it created was a lot more violence,” she said, referring to the militarized war on drug cartels that was launched by former president Felipe Calderón shortly after he took office in December 2006.
“What we seek is the arrest, within the framework of the law, of [members of] criminal groups,” Sheinbaum said.
“… And at the same time, attend to the causes [of crime], so that young people don’t take an interest in [joining] criminal groups,” she said, noting also that Mexico has asked the United States to do more to stop the southward flow of weapons to cartels.
Sheinbaum also said that the quantity of drugs being produced in Sinaloa has declined because authorities have dismantled a large number of clandestine drug labs in the state.
Sheinbaum: US has respected Mexico’s sovereignty ‘so far’
Asked whether a reduction in the flow of fentanyl to the United States from Mexico will be “enough to stop President Trump taking direct military action against the cartels on Mexican soil,” Sheinbaum pointed out that “so far, there has been respect” of Mexico’s sovereignty by the U.S. government.
“And they’ve seen the results that we’ve had,” said the president, who outlined those results to Trump in a telephone call last month.
“… There will continue to be respect because we are neighboring nations and this mutual respect has to be maintained,” Sheinbaum said.
After her Jan. 12 call with Trump, Sheinbaum said that a U.S. “military action” against cartels in Mexico could be ruled out. Four days earlier, Trump said the United States was going to start “hitting” Mexican cartels on land.
Sheinbaum: ‘It’s false’ that cartels run Mexico
Sommerville said it was clear that Sheinbaum and Trump “have a good personal relationship,” but asked the president whether it was “respectful” for the U.S. president to say “you don’t run this country, the cartels do.”
“It’s false,” Sheinbaum said, reiterating her rejection of a claim Trump has made on several occasions.
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t speak respectfully,” she said.
Sheinbaum noted that the White House, shortly after Trump began his second term, released a statement “related to organized crime in Mexico, in the sense you mention.”
She was referring to a White House “fact sheet” issued on Feb. 1, 2025, that asserts that “the Mexican drug trafficking organizations have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico,” and that “the government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics.”
Sheinbaum displayed a Feb. 1, 2025, post to X by the White House that similarly said that Mexican “cartels have an alliance with the government of Mexico.”
She noted that the White House, on X, provided a “piece of evidence” for its claim in the form of a screenshot of an Associated Press article on the sentencing in the United States of former security minister Genaro García Luna, who, in early 2023, was found guilty of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Do you know what the piece of evidence they presented is? García Luna, … the security minister of Felipe Calderón, who today is imprisoned in the United States,” Sheinbaum said.
“They were wrong by how many [years]? Six years of [Enrique] Peña [Nieto], six years of AMLO, … 12 years at least, 13 years,” she said.
While the White House posted a screenshot of the AP article about García Luna to X, it made no mention of the former security minister in the “fact sheet” it released on Feb. 1.
The fact sheet, as noted above, asserts that “Mexican drug trafficking organizations have” — present tense — “an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico.”
Sheinbaum responded to the claim the same day.
“We categorically reject the libel the White House makes against the government of Mexico,” she wrote on social media on Feb. 1, 2025.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
