The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, rejected this Friday the comparisons with Cuba and denied that Mexico is a "narco-state".
Her statements during the morning conference came after the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, compared the country to "dictatorships" like Cuba or Venezuela in a video shown during an event at Mar-a-Lago (Florida). Sheinbaum described those claims as "propaganda" and "absolutely false."
“Here anyone can say whatever they want without being persecuted. There is no censorship, there is freedom, democracy,” affirmed the leader during her daily press conference, in which she stated that Ayuso resorts to “lies and slander” because “they have no arguments” against her government.
"Well, look at the media, some are constantly speaking ill of the government. Many lies, many media outlets, some not. Do we not debate and say that it's a lie? Yes. But who censors it? No one, because it is the people's own conscience that prevails and the defense of their rights," he stated in the Mañanera.
"It is not a narco-state."
Sheinbaum stated that Mexico "has decided its own destiny without copying anyone" and defended that the political project she leads, the Fourth Transformation (4T), "is unlike anything in the world" because—she explained—it arises from the country's history and the roots of indigenous peoples.
The Mexican president also responded to the accusation of "narco-state," insisting that this label is part of a propagandistic narrative.
"And the talk about a narco government, narco president, narco all of that, well, we know that it’s just propaganda," he asserted.
As an argument, he mentioned a 42% decrease in homicides between September 2024 and January 2026, in addition to 28,000 arrests, and cited the arrest of the mayor of Tequila (Jalisco), from his own party, as evidence that "there is zero impunity," according to his statement.
Sheinbaum's words came after Ayuso expressed her desire that “soon Cuba, Nicaragua, and other countries like Mexico… break those same chains, regain their freedom, and put an end to the narco-states,” in a message broadcast from the event at Trump's private residence.
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