Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday her government was never told that CIA agents would take part in a raid on a clandestine drug lab in the northern border state of Chihuahua. Sources familiar with the operation said four CIA agents were involved in the Sunday operation, which targeted a mountain hideout.
The revelation landed only days after two U.S. officials died in a vehicle crash as they returned from destroying the lab, a reminder of how closely the intelligence fight against cartels can collide with Mexico’s sovereignty rules. The agents in Sunday’s raid were dressed in Chihuahua State Investigative Agency uniforms to blend in with Mexican officials, according to people familiar with the operation.
Sheinbaum said any relationship with the United States government on security must go through Mexico’s federal government and the foreign ministry, calling that a requirement under both the Constitution and the law. She also said cooperation should not extend to foreign agents operating in Mexico, and added that the military did not know foreigners were involved. Members of her Cabinet have contacted the U.S. Embassy for an explanation.
The incident adds pressure to an already fraught security relationship. U.S. agencies, including the CIA, regularly provide intelligence for Mexican police and the military, but participation by foreign agents in law-enforcement operations is outlawed by the Mexican Constitution. Sheinbaum has repeatedly rejected U.S. intervention, and the dispute comes as President Trump has again floated the idea of U.S. action against cartels in Mexico.
People familiar with the operation said the Sunday raid was at least the third time this year that CIA operatives joined authorities in Chihuahua against a drug target. They said two additional CIA officials were also present during the raid, along with two Mexican officials. That account stands in sharp contrast with Sheinbaum’s insistence that her government had not been informed, and that no foreign participation should have taken place without Mexico’s direct knowledge.
Sheinbaum also invoked the long shadow of U.S. intervention in Mexico, including the 1846-48 war in which Mexico lost half its territory, as part of her warning against any erosion of sovereignty. For now, the episode leaves the two governments with a familiar problem: they need each other to hit the cartels, but they disagree on how far outside help can go before it crosses a line.