Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Tuesday appeared to chide Ron Johnson, the US ambassador, for interfering in the country’s politics amid rising tensions between her country and Washington over efforts to tackle drug trafficking.
“It is also very important, and I say this respectfully, to remember that ambassadors should focus on coordination and collaboration,” Sheinbaum said during her regular morning news conference. “Ambassadors must respect the internal political affairs of their countries.”
The president’s comments came after a post on X, in which Johnson seemed to imply that Mexico was making the effort to combat drugs into a political issue, after Sheinbaum herself had accused the US of intervening in domestic issues.
“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,” Johnson wrote.
The back-and-forth between Johnson and Sheinbaum is the latest sign of increasing tensions between the two neighbouring countries, which have been rising for months over efforts to combat drug-trafficking groups.
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to send ground troops into Mexico to fight the cartels, and has also accused Mexican politicians of having an “intolerable alliance” with organized crime.
Throughout, Sheinbaum has kept what she herself has called a “cool head”, politely declining Trump’s offers to deploy US troops and acquiescing to his demands: ordering thousands of troops to the US border to halt migration, stopping oil shipments to Cuba, and sending nearly 100 cartel members to face justice in the US.
But relations began fraying in April after it was revealed that several CIA agents had been involved in a raid on a drug lab in Chihuahua state, without knowledge or approval from the federal government – a potential violation of Mexico’s constitution.
Just over a week later, the US justice department announced drug trafficking charges against the governor of the Sinaloa state and nine other current and former officials, accusing them of having ties to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
The governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, is a member of Sheinbaum’s own Morena party, and was a close ally of her mentor and predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Since the indictment, tensions between the two countries have reached boiling point, with Sheinbaum refusing to hand the governor over to US authorities until Washington provides more evidence against him.
Media reports also suggested that Rocha’s indictment would be the first of many, and that the CIA had expanded its on-the-ground efforts in Mexico.
Last week, Mexico’s congress approved a bill from Sheinbaum, amending the constitution to make ‘foreign interference’ grounds to annul election results.
On Sunday, Sheinbaum openly voiced her anger at the indictment.
“An incident of this magnitude is unprecedented in our bilateral relations,” she said during a rally. “Is this really a legitimate, genuine interest in helping Mexico? Or are we perhaps seeing sectors of the US far right positioning themselves ahead of their 2026 elections? Or do they intend to influence the 2027 election in our country?”
