The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (FGR) has summoned about 50 people who participated in the April 19 operation, in which Mexican authorities and CIA agents sought to dismantle a drug lab in the Sierra of Chihuahua. “We have managed to make progress with the investigation,” said the Public Ministry spokesperson, Ulises Lara, who indicated that these people are being summoned “to be interviewed in the coming days,” without giving further details. The operation in which four people died — two of them U.S. agents — has caused a strong institutional shock, which led to the opening of two investigations and the resignation of the Chihuahua prosecutor last week.
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The issue escalated just two days later, when President Claudia Sheinbaum stated during her morning conference that the four deceased agents were “working jointly” on a mission of which the federal Government was not informed. The FGR indicated this Monday that “legal requests have been made to verify the existence and, if applicable, the status of the credentials and security authorizations of the deceased agents.”
The Public Ministry revealed at the end of the week that there are two investigation files on this matter: one initiated months ago by state entities due to the discovery of a clandestine laboratory; and the other, more recent, about the possible commission of crimes against national security due to the presence of foreign agents carrying out operations on Mexican territory.
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The case came to the media’s attention when then state prosecutor César Jáuregui revealed the participation of foreign agents in the operation. The same official — who has not hidden his aspirations to govern the State — took responsibility for not having investigated the reason for the CIA’s presence. “The information we had was inconsistent and warranted an investigation,” he said last week at a conference.
The issue has again awakened fears about possible interventionism by U.S. authorities in Mexico, a shadow that has hung over the country since Donald Trump’s return to the White House early last year. A topic joined by the U.S. Justice accusations against 10 Sinaloa officials — including Governor Rubén Rocha Moya — for alleged links to drug trafficking. The FGR has reported in recent days that the accusations “do not have evidence to determine the responsibility” of the officials, and Sheinbaum said that if there is no “clear evidence,” the goal was “political.”
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