The president Donald Trump reiterated this Friday that drug cartels control Mexico and that President Claudia Sheinbaum does not wield real power in her country, during an event for Mother's Day held at the White House.
"Cartels govern Mexico, and no one else," declared Trump to the media, insisting on a narrative he has repeated since the beginning of his second term, directly implicating Sheinbaum as a figure without real authority against organized crime.
The statements come just two days after Trump threatened to intervene militarily in Mexico. "If they are not going to do the job, we will," he warned on Wednesday during the announcement of the new 2026 U.S. National Anti-Drug Strategy.
In the same event this Friday, Trump stated that his administration has reduced drug trafficking by sea by 97%, but warned that the problem persists on land. "We are losing 200,000 people a year due to the poison that enters our country," he declared, and anticipated that control of the land border will arrive "very soon."
Sheinbaum responded on Thursday during her morning conference, rejecting any foreign intervention. "We are taking action: there is an almost 50 percent reduction in intentional homicides, 2,500 labs destroyed (...) there is a reduction in the flow of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States," said the official, who reaffirmed that her government collaborates with Washington but will not tolerate interference in internal matters.
The exchange of statements occurs during one of the tensest moments in the bilateral relationship. This same Friday, it was revealed that CIA agents participated in an operation in Chihuahua against drug labs without prior authorization from the Mexican government, apparently violating the National Security Law.
This is complemented by the formal accusation against the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, presented on April 29 by the U.S. Department of Justice before a federal court in New York. Rocha Moya, a member of Morena —the party of Sheinbaum— faces charges of conspiracy to import narcotics and connections to the Sinaloa Cartel, with penalties ranging from 40 years to life imprisonment.
This accusation reinforces Trump's narrative about the infiltration of drug trafficking into the structures of the Mexican state. Federal prosecutor Jay Clayton was direct: "The Sinaloa Cartel is a ruthless criminal organization that has flooded this community with dangerous drugs for decades."
The escalation is not new. Since January of this year, Trump had already warned about an imminent ground attack against the cartels and publicly stated that Sheinbaum "does not lead" and "is afraid." In March, during the "Shield of the Americas" Summit in Miami, Trump formalized an anti-drug coalition with 12 Latin American countries and signed a decree for the use of "lethal military force" under the so-called "Monroe Doctrine."
In February 2025, Trump had already signed an executive order that designated six Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, including the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación and the Cártel de Sinaloa, paving the way for unilateral military actions.
In April, the U.S. launched lethal attacks against narcos in the Pacific, a sign that Washington is willing to act beyond its borders. With the review ordered this week of the 53 Mexican consulates in the U.S. and the possibility of closures, the pressure on Sheinbaum's government shows no signs of easing.
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