Sheinbaum denies that CIA agents are operating in Mexico

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum refuted a report that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency helped assassinate cartel members in Mexican territory earlier this year with an explosive hidden in a car.

A presumed Sinaloa Cartel member and his driver died after their vehicle exploded on a federal highway in Mexico State in March. A CNN report published on Tuesday alleges the CIA facilitated the murders, as part of a broader set of fatal attacks against cartel operatives carried out since last year.

“It’s false that CIA agents are operating in our territory,” Sheinbaum said at her daily press briefing Wednesday. “There are groups in the U.S. and in Mexico that are betting on the relationship between the two countries souring.”

A CIA spokesperson also denied the allegations in a post on X on Tuesday.

The CIA’s presence in Mexican affairs has become a domestic liability for the Mexican government. Two U.S. agents died in a road accident earlier this year in Chihuahua State, across the border of Texas, sparking questions about their involvement in a Mexican law enforcement drug bust.

In response to the CNN story, Mexico Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch denied any kind of lethal attack by foreign agencies operating in Mexico, writing in a social media post on Tuesday that international cooperation was limited to information-sharing and coordination.

Sheinbaum said other U.S. agencies have permits that are authorized under the constitution and the national security law. She said they are usually linked to the U.S. embassy and have to comply with the law.