Sheinbaum defies U.S. demand to extradite Mexican governor on drug charges

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president denounced the U.S. investigation into a sitting Mexican governor and other officials as “political” and said Thursday that Mexico would not comply with Washington’s demands that the defendant be detained and extradited to the United States.

“We don’t allow a foreign government to say what the future of Mexico will be,” said Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly criticized the United States for “interfering” in the incendiary case.

Sheinbaum said U.S. authorities have not presented enough evidence to justify arresting and detaining anyone in Mexico.

Mexico’s rejection of a U.S. request to arrest and extradite the defendants is likely to put Mexico on a collision course with Trump, who has harshly criticized Sheinbaum’s government for not doing enough to crack down on the cartels.

Sheinbaum’s comments came a day after a bombshell indictment was unsealed in federal court in New York charging 10 current and former Mexican officials with drug trafficking and weapons crimes and ties to the notorious Sinaloa cartel, co-founded by Joaquín “E Chapo” Guzmán.

At the top of the list of defendants was Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Also indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice were a federal senator from Sinaloa and the mayor of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state.

Rocha Moya and the others named denied the accusations, saying they were an attempt to subvert Mexico’s sovereignty.

The indictment outlines a disturbing scenario in which an entire Mexican state and its institutions are in the service of the Sinaloa mafia.

However, Sheinbaum disputed this explanation as inaccurate and lacking evidence. At the morning press conference, he appeared to mock some of the U.S. evidence — hand-written ledgers purportedly representing earnings paid to Mexican politicians. His team projected the footage on a screen during the morning session at Mexico’s National Palace.

Sheinbaum emphasized that it was unprecedented for the United States to launch charges directly against a sitting governor. “This has never happened before,” he said.

He has repeatedly said his government is “protecting no one” but has demanded “real” and “irrefutable” evidence before taking action against Rocha Moya and others.

Sheinbaum’s challenge has drawn Mexico into a confrontation with U.S. authorities not seen during Trump’s first presidency since 2021, when a former Mexican defense minister was arrested on smuggling charges at LAX in Los Angeles.

Retired General Salvador Cienfuegos was eventually released after intense lobbying by Mexican diplomats and then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor.

Cienfuegos has never faced charges in Mexico, and López Obrador has accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of fabricating a case against him. “Why did they conduct such an investigation?” At that time, López Obrador said: “Without support, without evidence?”