MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated that operations on Mexican soil are always carried out by Mexican forces, in her latest attempt to assuage concerns of U.S. encroachment on Mexican sovereignty.
The comments made at her daily press conference Thursday come after questions surrounding the case of a former Olympic snowboarder accused of drug trafficking, who was recently sent to the U.S. to face charges.
Sheinbaum and U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson have insisted that Canadian Ryan Wedding, who was in hiding in Mexico, turned himself in at the U.S. embassy last week, something his lawyer denies.
That account was contradicted by FBI Director Kash Patel, who said the fugitive accused of moving drugs into the U.S. was captured in a “high-risk” joint operation carried out “hand-in-hand” and “on the ground” with Mexican forces.
On Thursday, Sheinbaum spoke with Trump by phone, part of the two leaders’ continuing dialogue on trade and security, but they did not speak of Wedding’s arrest, she said.
Sheinbaum acknowledged earlier this week that she did not know the details of the arrest and did not want to argue with Patel.
But she addressed the ongoing concerns of U.S. intervention in Mexico.
“We will never accept joint operations by the United States … operations on our territory are carried out by Mexican forces … we always tell President Trump that,” she insisted Thursday after the call.
Instead, Sheinbaum said the leaders spoke about drug trafficking, the border and trade, coming as the Mexican president has sought to defuse mounting threats by Trump of taking military action against cartels.
The controversy surrounding Wedding's arrest has resurfaced anxieties around how U.S. agencies operate on Mexican territory, especially in the wake of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela earlier this month, which deposed former President Nicolás Maduro. Since, Trump has repeatedly underscored his desire to fight cartels on land, an escalation from the boat attacks carried out in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly said she would not allow unilateral U.S. military intervention in the country over concerns for Mexican sovereignty but has promoted bilateral cooperation between the two neighbors.
The Mexican president said that in this latest conversation Trump did not press for any operations in Mexico, but that they did discuss Mexico's most recent transfer of dozens of imprisoned cartel members to the U.S., which observers have described as an offering by Sheinbaum's government.
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