Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for an investigation following the death of two U.S. intelligence officials in an apparent counter-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson announced the deaths of the officials as “two members of staff from the United States Embassy,” but U.S. officials later identified them to the New York Times and the Washington Post as members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
They died alongside two Mexican officials from the Chihuahua State Investigation Agency (AEI) in a car crash when returning from a drug raid in the municipality of Morelos on Sunday.
Read more: The White House and Mexico Are Learning to Get Along
Sheinbaum said Monday that her government had been “unaware of any direct collaboration between the state of Chihuahua and personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico” and that it was "investigating what these people were doing and what agency they were working for.”
“The relationship is federal, not state,” she said. “They must have authorization from the federal government for this collaboration, which necessarily takes place at the state level, as established by the Constitution.”
Sheinbaum’s call for an investigation has reignited a contentious debate over the scope of U.S. involvement in Mexico. While it is not unusual for U.S. officials to be involved in training Mexican security forces, direct U.S. presence in Mexico has been a point of contention since the U.S. ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
As he did with Maduro before that operation, President Donald Trump has pressured Sheinbaum and her government to crack down on cartels in order to stop the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S., raising the prospect of military action if she fails to do so to his satisfaction.
The CIA has increased its collaboration with Mexico as part of that effort. Sheinbaum said last year that the U.S. was conducting drone surveillance flights in the country at her request, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe allotted new resources for counter-cartel work in the U.S.-Mexico border region in early 2025.
What is behind Sheinbaum’s reaction?
According to Duncan Wood, a fellow at the Wilson Center, Sheinbaum’s response is much more about internal “political theater” and her left-wing Morena party than about Donald Trump.
Direct military action by the U.S. against Mexican cartels, which Trump has threatened, would be a “watershed moment,” he added. Sheinbaum has had to perform a balancing act between warding off the threat from Trump and her own domestic considerations.
“Any Mexican leader is naturally going to express concern and also surprise when U.S. operatives are discovered in Mexico, even though the fact is they know that this happens all the time,” Wood says. “And the reason why they express concern and surprise is because of the deeply held nationalist feelings in Mexico—as you'd find in many countries— about operatives being active there.”
He said this situation is complicated by the current tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, which have caused her “many headaches” with the party.
“I think that when Sheinbaum comes out and says these things, she's also thinking very much about how she is able to show that she's in charge—not anybody else, and the United States isn't pushing her,” he added. “She really does have to push back for domestic political reasons.”
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the issue is likely to be a further point of tension between the U.S. and Mexico.
"She gets applauded for handling her relationship with Trump, but you've also seen significant concessions from Mexico on the security relationship to the U.S," she tells TIME. "The Mexican government is running out of deliverables for the U.S," she adds.
Felbab-Brown believes Sheinbaum could be utilizing the news of the CIA officials involvement as a bargaining chip in ongoing negotiations related to the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). The USMCA is set for a joint “formal review” in July 2026.
“The easiest solution would have been just to say, ‘Well, this was just a training mission,’ but she chose to make a much bigger deal out of it for domestic political reasons, and potentially as a bargaining chip with the U.S.,” she says.
Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday that the officials were driving in the middle of the night when the car "appears to have skidded at some point and fallen into a ravine, exploding."
He also said that state prosecutors had been working with Mexico’s federal army for months on a joint investigation into drug labs in Morelos.
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