MI’s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter – May 1, 2025

May 8, 2026
12:00 pm

Foreign press coverage

Foreign press coverage has again roiled Mexico’s news cycle (following the Washington Post breaking the story of CIA presence in Chihuahua last week) with Puente News reporter Steve Fisher writing in the LA Times that the Trump administration would soon launch an “anti-corruption campaign” against Mexican officials. U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson hinted not so subtly at this escalation at the groundbreaking of the US $3-billion Pacífico Mexinol methanol plant in Sinaloa last week, warning that corruption “slows progress and threatens investment” before closing with: “We may soon see significant action on this front. So, stay tuned.”

The other shoe dropped Wednesday with U.S. indictments of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current and former officials, including a Morena federal senator and Culiacán’s mayor (also of Morena). Charges include drug trafficking, kidnapping, and murder—and, notably, allege that Rocha colluded with the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel to win the 2021 gubernatorial election. The U.S. is seeking extradition, which Sheinbaum said at her Thursday mañanera would only proceed if Mexican authorities are presented with “convincing evidence”, reiterating her rejection of foreign interference in internal affairs. Rocha has vehemently denied the charges, framing the indictment as an attack on the 4T.

Before the indictment news bombshell, the WSJ published a piece headlined “Claudia Sheinbaum Is Learning the Price of Appeasing Trump,” arguing that “each time Sheinbaum gives President Trump an inch, he demands a mile”. The reporters credit her unflappable approach, but question how long her acquiescence can hold as U.S. actions alienate her base. Some Mexican outlets accused the piece of misogyny for suggesting she’s drawing on her experience managing AMLO —described as a “classic alpha male” — to handle Trump. The takeaway seems summed up by a quote from Jorge Castañeda: “I disagree with almost everything she has done. But I don’t know what she could have done differently.” Bloomberg, meanwhile, reported that a faltering economy has pushed Sheinbaum’s approval rating to its lowest point yet, at 51% in April; though their polling has consistently shown her less popular than polls published in Mexican outlets.

In other security news, foreign press covered the arrest of top CJNG capo “El Jardinero” in Nayarit, another win for Mexican law enforcement; García Harfuch also acknowledged use of U.S.-shared intelligence to execute the operation. The NYT and AP followed up on the CIA agents story, noting Sheinbaum’s effort to “defuse” bilateral tensions while insisting unauthorized U.S. operations on Mexican soil should not happen again. The Guardian, in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center and Open Society Foundations, published a lengthy investigation into illegal logging and cartel violence against communities in the Sierra Tarahumara—the same Chihuahua region where the CIA officers and two Mexican law enforcement officers died in a car wreck after a counternarcotics operation.

On the economic front, the FT covered Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada’s push to enshrine rent control and other housing policies in the CDMX constitution, telling the now-familiar tale of gentrification in Condesa, Roma, and nearby neighbourhoods like Tacubaya (now apparently christened “South Condesa” by developers). Experts quoted in the piece note that a shortage of low-income housing and “the market’s excessive focus on premium housing” is more to blame than the influx of foreigners since the pandemic. The WSJ explored the temptation of cheaper Chinese cars available just across the border for U.S. consumers, and Bloomberg reported on Moody’s upcoming June decision on Mexico’s investment-grade credit rating, which was assigned a negative outlook in late 2024.

Notable blogs in English on Mexico

Ioan Grillo dove into the details of the U.S. indictments within hours of the news breaking on CrashOut, and explored how members of Los Chapitos imprisoned in the U.S. likely provided testimony. Grillo reached out to the lawyer for Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán, who wouldn’t confirm if his clients gave evidence, but told him, “I think the indictment really speaks for itself as to where the evidence came from”. In Mexico Decoded, Viri Ríos explored whether Mexico meets the criteria of a “narco-state”, concluding that it doesn’t, but that “the persistence of organized crime stems less from universal political complicity than from institutional fragility at the local level”. The Mexico Political Economist analysed the triumphs and tribulations of the rapidly-expanding Secretaría de Bienestar (Welfare Ministry), which will account for roughly 27% of the government’s annual discretionary budget by 2027; a third of Mexicans are beneficiaries of at least one of its programmes. In Materia Gris, Eduardo García covered Sheinbaum’s reversal on fracking and the criticism from (some) of her political allies. And Miranda Intelligence’s daily Substack over the week covered key developments in energy, fintech, public affairs and politics in Mexico.

Crashout – Bomb Drop: US Indicts Sinaloa Governor On Narco Charges

The Mexico Political Economist – State of Welfare: On Mexico’s fastest growing ministry

Mexico Decoded – Is Mexico’s President in Bed with the Cartels?

Materia Gris – Sheinbaum’s U-turn on Fracking: Ideological Flexibility?

Miranda Intelligence on Substack

Photo of the week

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will face pressure from President Trump to extradite Mexican officials indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on drug trafficking charges.

(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, left; Alfredo Estrella/Getty Images, right)

MI’s Mexico Foreign Press Chatter – May 1, 2025

Foreign press coverage

Notable blogs in English on Mexico

Photo of the week

Other articles in Mexico