Crime & justice

Mexico Investigates US Involvement in 2024 Cartel Boss Capture

Did the U.S. violate Mexican sovereignty or has Mexico's decades of cartel failure caused it to forfeit its right to complain?

Published 3 days ago

Mexico Investigates US Involvement in 2024 Cartel Boss Capture

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Above: Claudia Sheinbaum during a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, on July 8. Image credit: Solrac Santiago/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

The FBI displaying the captured plane blows up Salazar's claim that no U.S. agency was involved — someone lied, and Mexico has two years of unanswered requests to prove it. If agencies ran this without consent, that's a treaty violation. Cutting deals with one cartel figure to bag another, then denying it for two years, isn't cooperation. It makes genuine bilateral security impossible.

Al Jazeera Mexico News Daily

Pro-establishment narrative

Guzman Lopez admitted in court that he orchestrated the kidnapping, and his plea agreement states the U.S. did not request or condone it. Mexico has spent decades failing to prosecute cartel leadership while cartels expanded. Calling U.S. law enforcement capitalizing on a cartel betrayal a sovereignty violation is rich coming from a government that couldn't touch Zambada for fifty years.

Council on Foreign Relations InSight Crime