Mexico, CIA reject report of US assassination campaign against cartels

Mexico’s government and the CIA have rebutted a report claiming that US intelligence agents have participated in the targeted assassinations of alleged drug cartel members in the Latin American country.

The denials on Tuesday came after CNN reported that the CIA has been deeply involved in deadly operations aimed at dismantling Mexico’s drug cartels.

CIA operatives have “directly participated” in several attacks on drug trafficking syndicates since last year, including a car explosion in March that killed Francisco Beltran, an alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel, CNN reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.

The operations have mostly targeted mid-level cartel members, with the CIA’s involvement ranging from “passive intelligence sharing” to “direct participation in assassination operations”, CNN reported.

In a social media post, CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons said the CNN report was “false and salacious” and “serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk”.

Mexico’s Secretary of Security Omar Garcia Harfuch also challenged the report, saying the government “categorically rejects any version that seeks to normalise, justify, or suggest the existence of lethal, covert, or unilateral operations by foreign agencies on national territory”.

“Cooperation with the United States exists, is important, and has yielded relevant results for both countries,” Harfuch said in a post on X.

“However, it is carried out under clear principles: respect for sovereignty, shared responsibility, mutual trust, and cooperation without subordination.”

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Mexican government and the CIA’s rebuttals.

Since returning to the White House in January last year, US President Donald Trump has targeted Latin American drug trafficking gangs in an aggressive campaign that critics say has overstepped legal and presidential norms.

Trump’s administration has designated nine Latin America-based drug gangs as “terrorist” organisations, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, and Carteles Unidos, and launched dozens of air strikes on boats suspected of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing more than 190 people.

Trump’s anti-drug trafficking drive has been a source of friction with Mexico, which US officials say is the main transit point for the bulk of illicit flows of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine into the country.

Last month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened to sanction authorities in the border state of Chihuahua for permitting CIA personnel to participate in raids on clandestine drug laboratories.

Sheinbaum said that she and other senior members of her government had not been notified of US involvement in the operations, which came to light after two Americans who were reportedly working for the CIA died in a car crash following a counter-narcotics raid.