CNN Says CIA Murdered in Mexico with Car Bombs; Security Secretary Harfuch Says They Didn’t

ByJay Watts

US news network CNN is reporting today, in a story by Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Evan Perez and Mauricio Torres, that the CIA was behind a March car bomb which killed Francisco “El Payin” Beltran, an alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel.

On March 28th, a Toyota truck exploded on the Mexico-Pachuca Highway near Tecámac, in the State of Mexico, killing “El Payin” and another occupant, identified as Humberto “N.”

The truck exploded after exiting Felipe Ángeles International Airport.

In the story, “Exclusive: CIA escalates secret war on cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico“, CNN reports that multiple sources have told them the attack was a targeted assassination, “facilitated by CIA operations officers,” and part of a larger campaign inside Mexico, which included several other fatal attacks. CIA and US intelligence agency involvement in anti-drug operations in Mexico had previously been admitted, although ostensibly limited to “intelligence sharing.”

CNN’s anonymous source identified US Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson, a former Green Beret and CIA agent, as “integral” to the CIA’s expanded ground presence and covert operations.

One of the sources told CNN, “It’s not at all clear that all of their missions are coordinated with the [Mexican] government”. The sources were not identified, while CIA declined to comment and, according to CNN, several Mexican government agencies did not respond to a request for comment.

Omar Garcia Harfuch, Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, however; respnded promptly, an hour and fifteen minutes after the CNN story broke, writing on his X account,

“Regarding the version disseminated by CNN about an explosion that occurred in Tecámac, State of Mexico, in which the alleged involvement of the CIA in operations against cartels is pointed out, the Government of Mexico categorically rejects any version that seeks to normalize, justify, or suggest the existence of lethal, covert, or unilateral operations by foreign agencies on national territory.

Cooperation with the United States exists, is important, and has yielded relevant results for both countries; however, it is carried out under clear principles: respect for sovereignty, shared responsibility, mutual trust, and cooperation without subordination.

Under these principles, both governments have achieved significant advances in the fight against transnational organized crime, including the arrests of key targets, seizures of drugs, weapons, chemical precursors, clandestine laboratories, financial resources, and assets linked to criminal structures. These results demonstrate that bilateral collaboration can be effective when conducted through institutional channels, with information exchange and full respect for each country’s legal framework.

In Mexico, operational actions correspond exclusively to the competent Mexican authorities. Any international cooperation is limited to information exchange, institutional coordination, and formal mechanisms established by the Government of Mexico, particularly through the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and the institutions of the Security Cabinet.”

Mexico’s national security law forbids foreign agents from operating within Mexico without federal approval and reporting on their activities. Unauthorized CIA operations have become a point of national scandal after the Sunday, April 19th death of two CIA agents operating in Chihuahua without federal authorization.

At 5:15PM, Liz Lyons, Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the CIA, posted on her X account,

“This is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk.”

The CIA officer, also known as Elizabeth Horning Lyons, married to Derek S Lyons in 2022, graduate of the US Naval War College and University of South Carolina, did not specify in what way the daylight murder of a drug trafficker would contribute to a PR campaign for drug trafficking criminal organizations. Secretary Harfuch quoted the tweet 33 minutes later, adding, “Official account of the CIA spokesperson.”

Earlier today, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, appearing before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee said that the Trump administration hoped the Mexican government would intervene against criminal organizations in Mexico so the US wouldn’t have to, while citing President Sheinbaum’s “unprecedented cooperation” with the US on the same issue; while US Drug Enforcement Agency head Terry Cole said that the indictment of Sinaloa’s Morena Governor Rubén Rocha Moya was “just the beginning of what’s to come in Mexico.”