The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has denied that her authorities has any proof linking Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro to the Sinaloa Cartel, a legal community based mostly in her nation.
Sheinbaum’s statements on Friday had been prompted by an announcement sooner or later earlier that the US would double its reward for info resulting in Maduro’s arrest, placing the present reward at $50m.
The administration of US President Donald Trump claimed Maduro was “one of many largest narco-traffickers on the earth” and that he had direct ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, in addition to two different Venezuelan gangs.
Sheinbaum was requested about these allegations in her morning information convention on Friday. She answered that this week was the primary time she had heard of such accusations.
“On Mexico’s half, there is no such thing as a investigation that has to do with that,” Sheinbaum mentioned. “As we at all times say, if they’ve some proof, present it. We wouldn’t have any proof.”
A historical past of ‘most strain’
Mexico has lengthy maintained diplomatic relations with Venezuela, whereas the US has damaged its ties with the federal government in Caracas over questions concerning the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency.
As an alternative, the US has recognised candidates from Venezuela’s opposition coalition because the nation’s rightful leaders, and it has additionally closely sanctioned Maduro and his allies.
Trump, particularly, has had a rocky relationship with Maduro over his years as president. Throughout his first time period, from 2017 to 2021, Trump pursued a marketing campaign of “most strain” towards Maduro, which included an initial reward of $15m.
That quantity was later raised to $25m throughout the ultimate weeks of President Joe Biden’s presidency, in response to Maduro’s hotly contested re-election to a 3rd time period in 2024.
Election observers mentioned that the vote had not been “democratic“, and the opposition coalition revealed uncooked vote tallies that appeared to contradict the federal government’s official outcomes.
However as Trump started his second time period on January 20, critics speculated that the Republican chief would soften his method to Maduro so as to search help together with his marketing campaign of mass deportation.
Venezuela has a historical past of refusing to just accept deportees from the US.
Since then, Trump has despatched envoy Richard Grenell to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and secured offers that noticed US residents launched from Venezuelan custody. Venezuela has additionally accepted to obtain deportation flights from the US in latest months.
However the Trump administration has maintained it has no intention of recognising Maduro’s authorities.
Legitimising claims of an ‘invasion’
The accusations towards Maduro additional one other Trump objective: legitimising his sweeping claims to government energy.
Since returning to workplace in January, Trump has invoked emergency measures, together with the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to facilitate his coverage objectives, together with his marketing campaign of mass deportation.
Trump was re-elected on a hardline platform that conflated immigration with criminality.
However so as to use the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime regulation, Trump needed to present that both the nation was engaged in a “declared battle” or that it confronted an “invasion or predatory incursion” from a international nation.
To fulfill that requirement, Trump has blamed Venezuela for masterminding a legal “invasion” of the US.
On Thursday, Trump’s Legal professional Common Pam Bondi additionally accused Maduro of working hand in hand with the cartels to revenue from their drug-smuggling enterprises.
“Maduro makes use of international terrorist organisations like TdA [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to convey lethal medicine and violence into our nation,” Bondi mentioned in a video.
“Up to now, the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] has seized 30 tonnes of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, with practically seven tonnes linked to Maduro himself, which represents a main supply of revenue for the lethal cartels based mostly in Venezuela and Mexico.”
However in Could, a declassified intelligence memo from the US authorities solid doubt on the allegation that Maduro is puppeteering gang exercise within the US.
“Whereas Venezuela’s permissive setting permits TDA to function, the Maduro regime in all probability doesn’t have a coverage of cooperating with TDA and isn’t directing TDA motion to and operations in the US,” the memo mentioned.
Venezuelan Overseas Minister Yvan Gil responded to Bondi’s claims on Thursday by calling them “probably the most ridiculous smokescreen ever seen”.