By MARÍA VERZA, Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum denied her administration had an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Tuesday, hours after the U.S. agency announced “a major new initiative” to collaborate in the fight against drug cartels.
Sheinbaum was referring to “Project Portero,” an effort announced Monday by the DEA, calling it a “flagship operation” against smuggling routes that move drugs, guns and money across the border.
“The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying that there is an agreement with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing. “There is no agreement with the DEA. The DEA puts out this statement, based on what we don’t know. We have not reached any agreement, none of the security institutions (have) with the DEA.”
The U.S. embassy in Mexico and the DEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sheinbaum said the only thing happening was a workshop in Texas attended by four members of Mexico’s police force.
The DEA statement mentioned that workshop, saying it had brought Mexican investigators to one of its intelligence centers to train with U.S. prosecutors, law enforcement, defense officials and members of the intelligence community.
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The visibly annoyed president made her comments just days after generally positive exchanges between the two governments following another extension to ward off threatened U.S. tariffs and another shipment of 26 drug cartel figures to the U.S. from Mexico.
Mexico had seemed to be repairing the security relationship with the United States after six years of tension under Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had reined in DEA agents operating in Mexico and accused the agency of wholesale fabrication when it arrested Mexico’s former defense secretary.
Sheinbaum’s administration had taken a more aggressive stance toward pursuing Mexico’s drug cartels and sent dozens of cartel figures sought by U.S. prosecutors to the United States.
Sheinbaum did say that members of her administration had been working for months with U.S. counterparts on a broader security agreement that was practically finished. She said that agreement was based on four principles her administration has stressed for months: sovereignty, mutual trust, territorial respect and coordination without subordination.
The thing that seemed to have her bristling Tuesday was the DEA sending out a statement without proper coordination.
Sheinbaum said she asked the DEA to respect Mexico, to follow agreed-upon protocols for such announcements, and emphasized that Mexico only signs agreements with the U.S. government, not with individual agencies.
The DEA statement included a comment from agency administrator Terry Cole, who was recently tapped to lead the Trump administration takeover of the Washington D.C. police.
“Project Portero and this new training program show how we will fight — by planning and operating side by side with our Mexican partners, and by bringing the full strength of the U.S. government to bear,” Cole said in the Monday statement.
