Listen to this article
Average 5 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that reports that the CIA was involved in a recent targeted killing outside Mexico City were “a myth of cosmic proportions.”
CNN and the New York Times reported on Tuesday that the CIA was involved in the targeted car bombing of a Sinaloa cartel member on March 28.
Video captured by a car’s rear-view camera driving on a freeway outside Mexico City showed another car exploding before crossing medians into oncoming traffic and crashing. CBC News confirmed that the video posted on social media by Mexican news agency SéUno Noticias was authentic and not manipulated by AI, but could not determine who originally filmed it.
The explosion left suspected Sinaloa cartel member Francisco “El Playin” Beltran and his driver dead.
“Imagine that there are CIA agents working in our country to kill or eliminate someone. Just imagine the magnitude of the creation of such lies in a report of this magnitude,” said Sheinbaum, during his usual weekday morning press conference.
Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Civil Protection Omar Harfuch denied the reports Tuesday evening on the social media site X. CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons followed Harfuch’s post with the agency’s official denial.
“This is false and has been reported to be nothing more than that [public relations] the cartels’ campaign is also putting American lives at risk,” Lyons wrote.
The reports come after widespread controversy over the death of two US officials in April – reportedly CIA operatives – following a federal law enforcement operation in Chihuahua to dismantle a methamphetamine-producing laboratory.
The Sinaloa cartel has been the target of US authorities in recent years after Biden-era officials identified the organization as a major supplier of fentanyl to the US, according to court records.
The Sheinbaum administration says it did not know US officials were operating on Mexican soil, something it says would be illegal.
The Federal Attorney General’s office is investigating the case. Chihuahua Governor Maria Eugenia Campos Galván denied knowing about US officials participating in the operation.
The reports are sound, says a security analyst
David Saucedo, a security analyst for Mexico City, said that reports of CIA involvement in killings on Mexican soil are evident given the organization’s history in Latin America.
Saucedo said the CIA used similar tactics against terrorist groups in Colombia in the 1990s. “And to me, it seems normal that Mexican and US authorities deny this.”
Saucedo said Beltran, the alleged target of the bombing, was a key figure in the Sinaloa cartel’s drug-trafficking operations.
He said Beltran also once managed the regional operations of the gang and is believed to be affiliated with a group loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was once the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
“His killing means a big loss in the company’s operations,” said Saucedo.
“Certainly now they have started to quickly identify figures who can take his jobs.”
It’s impossible to know why Beltran was targeted in the car bombing without seeing the other pieces of the puzzle in this alleged CIA operation, he said.
Questions remain in captivity: Sheinbaum
The Sinaloa caravan has been torn apart by the civil war that has plagued the country of Sinaloa for almost 20 months. According to Saucedo, it is not clear which side Beltran was on when he died.
The conflict erupted after one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, lured Zambada to a meeting in July 2024, kidnapped him and put him on a plane to New Mexico. Guzmán López surrendered to US authorities and Zambada and both remain in custody.
Sheinbaum said at a news conference on Wednesday that many questions remain about the role of US law enforcement in the Zambada abduction that “sparked” the violence in Sinaloa.
“For those dedicated to investigating these topics, it would be interesting to review how this situation came about,” said Sheinbaum, Wednesday. Thousands of people have been killed or disappeared during the Sinaloa faction’s civil war.
Guzmán López said that the former governor of Sinaloa Ruben Rocha will attend the meeting that drew Zambada to the farm on the outskirts of Culiacán where he was kidnapped, according to a letter issued by Zambada’s lawyer.
Rocha, a member of Sheinbaum’s party, resigned as governor earlier this month after the United States released an indictment alleging that he made a deal with El Chapo’s sons to win the 2021 federal election in exchange for providing the state security service to their criminal organization.
The United States has asked for Rocha’s extradition, but the Mexican government has said it needs more evidence before going to arrest the high-ranking politician.
