Expel the CIA

ByFabrizio Mejía Madrid

This column by Fabrizio Mejía Madrid originally appeared in the May 1, 2026 edition of Sin Embargo. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media or the Mexico Solidarity Project.

CIA agents Richard Leiter Johnston and John Dudley Black, who died in a reported car crash in Chihuahua, departed from a Covert Operations office in Monterrey, Nuevo León. This led to the National Action Party (PAN) joining the defense of the Chihuahua governor in support of the CIA, a defense also offered by the Citizen Movement Party. This office was established after John Ratcliffe became CIA director. A staunch supporter of Donald Trump, Ratcliffe, who received 20 Democratic votes for his Senate confirmation, has stated that the Counternarcotics Mission Center of the Americas, as its headquarters in Virginia is called, prioritizes U.S. security over the sovereignty of other countries. He also urged covert agents not to fear the risks of operating on U.S. soil. In other words, what Trump’s CIA wants is to enter other countries without permission and carry out police work that it isn’t even authorized to do in its own country because it’s another agency, the FBI, that legally has the authority to arrest people. But if it’s Mexico, the CIA acts with impunity, especially when it’s protected by subservient governors like Maru Campos and Samuel García.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe promised promised he would make the CIA more willing to conduct covert action, “going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do.”

Since the Joe Biden years, and even more so during Trump’s second term, MQ-9 Reaper drones brought from Iraq and Syria have been used on Mexican soil to attack Mexican authorities without warning. Undercover agents have been disguised in state police uniforms, and, in general, everything that entails is that this public health issue in the United States is being addressed as a counterterrorism problem in Latin America. The fact that they were previously drug cartels and are now terrorist organizations changes the perspective from which the United States addresses it: before with the DEA, now with the CIA and the U.S. military. That was the change Donald Trump made, and that is the gravity of it.

I read, without giving credence to the Calderón-era columnists: why is Mexico protesting if the only thing that matters is that a drug lab was raided? There are three responses to this kind of irresponsible capitulation: first, sovereignty implies that Mexico has a protocol with U.S. agencies requiring permission to collaborate, and that is constitutionally legal in this country, whether they like it or not; second, Mexican authorities don’t need the CIA to dismantle laboratories, considering that during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, 2,592 laboratories were dismantled and two trillion pesos were seized, and so far under Claudia Sheinbaum, the average is four laboratories destroyed per day, meaning approximately 1,887 to date; third, this counterterrorism tactic constitutes a violation of human rights because there is no authority to answer to, as seen in the case of Maru Campos blaming the deceased, Pedro Román Oceguera, director of her state intelligence agency in Chihuahua. And, since he is dead, that’s where the explanations end because he cannot testify. With that trick, plus the resignation of her Attorney General Jáuregui—the same one who had lied about CIA agents flying drones nearby and who had asked the state police for a ride—Maru Campos intends to close the case and had the political indecency to stand up the Senate committee that required her to give some kind of explanation.

But the last point—that of the agents disguised as Chihuahua police officers—is worth understanding in more detail to grasp the gravity of what Campos and García have been supporting on the northern border of the Republic. Richard Leiter Johnston had been transferred from Afghanistan and Iraq to northern Mexico, along with the drones that were used in Iraq and Syria against Al-Qaeda and ISIS, themselves creations of the United States. There in West Asia, Leiter participated in the founding of a monstrosity in the southeastern region of Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan, called KP units, short for Khost Protection Force, the CIA’s paramilitary group. These KP units were based at Camp Chapman, the largest CIA base for covert operations in the world.

The idea behind the creation of these KP units was for them to undertake actions that, for legal reasons, the military could not justify. This included severe human rights violations, alteration of the nation’s infrastructure without any accountability, torture, murder, and kidnapping. The KP units were composed of local personnel who spoke the language but were under the orders of CIA agents. This made the Chihuahuans involved in the supposed dismantling of the laboratory subordinates of the Americans. We tend to think that the CIA agents were collaborating or simply observing, but that’s not the case. The KP units were directed by the Americans, by the CIA. This made the CIA agents in Chihuahua criminals who didn’t report their activities to anyone. They operated under Title 50 of the U.S. Security Act, which states that a President can order covert operations and deny their existence to any authority. In other words, these KP units operated outside the law of any country.

The history of KP units in Latin America is tragic. In Venezuela, they carried out sabotage operations to weaken the national army’s response when President Nicolás Maduro was kidnapped. In Colombia, it was the Jungle Command, a Green Beret group responsible for the summary executions of people whose identities—whether drug traffickers, guerrillas, or simply passersby—were never determined. In Panama City and Comalapa, El Salvador, they operate digital espionage centers monitoring phones and computers, without any judge ordering or prohibiting their activities. Impunity is the purpose behind the creation of these units. And, as far as we know, Maru Campos was involved in this. Nuevo León still needs to provide information about the CIA office in Monterrey.

In 2005, Americans massacred 24 men, women & children in an Iraqi town, Haditha.

They don’t capture people, they murder them. In case of mistaken identity, they claim that the innocent victims were actually members of a terrorist cell. They torture detainees before handing them over to any judicial authority. They violate the privacy of thousands of people through their networks of illegally intercepting conversations and text messages. A prime example was the Haditha massacre in Iraq, where 24 elderly people, children, women, and babies were murdered, and no judicial body could deliver justice because the killers argued that they were repelling an attack and that the deaths were caused by a terrorist bomb. Since there are no accountable authorities, the violation cannot be properly investigated. No one has been convicted for the Haditha massacre.

The next point is that this operation wasn’t simply about some Americans dismantling a supposed clandestine lab. The operation began in January when CIA agents Johnston and Black arrived at the Monterrey office, just as Radcliffe was confirmed as director of that spy agency by both Democrats and Republicans. The routes of precursor chemicals arriving from the Port of Mazatlán were mapped. For the covert activities in the Sierra Tarahumara, an agreement was made with Attorney General Jáuregui, the same one who claimed they were drone flight instructors and who has now resigned for lying. Between February and March, the MQ-9 drones began operating, their data being sent to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, which constitutes a serious violation of Mexican sovereignty. In March, agents disguised as state police officers also appeared to verify the drone data on the ground. These are at least three separate operations. Then came the failed one. It was Operation Guachochi, which involved raids on towns in the Sierra and interrogations. Until April 19, when the alleged landslide exposed these illegal and politically irresponsible activities.

Disguised as state police officers to avoid raising suspicion within the Mexican Army, Johnston and Black entered Mexico by lying about their legal status. One entered as a tourist and the other with a diplomatic passport. Their activities are prohibited by Article 71 of the National Security Law, passed in 2020, which states:

“Foreign Agents must observe the following provisions:

  1. They may only carry out liaison activities for the exchange of information with Mexican authorities in accordance with the provisions of the accreditation issued in their favor;
  2. They may not exercise the powers reserved to Mexican authorities nor may they apply or enforce foreign laws in national territory;
  3. They must refrain from making direct dealings with authorities other than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the relevant agencies in accordance with the respective international cooperation agreements signed by the Mexican State on security matters and that contribute to preserving National Security;
  4. They must inform the relevant Mexican authorities, in accordance with the respective international cooperation agreements signed by the Mexican State regarding security and which contribute to preserving National Security, of the information they obtain in the exercise of their functions;
  5. They must submit a monthly report to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Security and Citizen Protection regarding matters related to bilateral cooperation agreements signed by the Mexican State in the area of ​​security that contribute to preserving National Security. This report must include the activities and actions they undertake with various federal, state, and municipal authorities. In all cases, they must maintain the confidentiality of the information they obtain as a result of applying the bilateral cooperation agreements, in accordance with the terms established therein.
  6. They shall be prohibited from carrying out or inducing third parties to carry out arrests, to carry out actions aimed at depriving people of their liberty, to trespass on private property or any other conduct that violates the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and applicable national laws;
  7. They must refrain from engaging in activities that endanger their physical safety. Consequently, they must comply with the criteria established by the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, and
  8. They may only carry firearms that, if applicable, are authorized by the Ministry of National Defense.

As previously stated, Maru Campos violated the provisions of this National Security Law by allowing a hybrid unit, also known as a KP unit, to operate independently in the mountains of her state, a region she herself has never visited. She faces numerous accusations, including receiving a 10.3 million peso bribe to avoid prosecuting former governor César Duarte, who recently returned to prison. Campos also forgave César Duarte’s family 34 million pesos in taxes, despite this being prohibited by the Constitution. But, well, Maru and legality don’t exactly go hand in hand. Furthermore, she has spent two billion pesos cleaning up her image in the media, buying articles, columnists, and personal advertising. This two billion pesos is public money. As if this weren’t scandalous enough, she has indebted her state by three billion pesos, a debt that will continue for another 25 years, until April 2026, or until 2051.

A 2023 confrontation in Guachochi, Chihuahua left eight dead.

Her failure to address security is almost as scandalous as her corruption. Chihuahua has the second-highest homicide rate in the country, after Guanajuato. With only three percent of Mexico’s population, it accounts for eight percent of the nation’s crime. From 2020 to 2025, kidnappings in the state increased by 355 percent, an 81 percent increase in the last three years alone. Given this level of insecurity, the Governor of Chihuahua thought it was a good idea to dismantle alleged methamphetamine labs in the Sierra Tarahumara so that addicts from Texas and Arizona wouldn’t buy them. She has rejected social welfare programs that address the root causes of crime, was the only governor to prohibit the distribution of free textbooks in her state’s public schools, and now she is defying the executive branch by not answering the President’s calls, and the legislative branch by failing to appear before the Senate. She authorized the entry of an illegal unit led by CIA agents into national territory. She must face impeachment because, as in the case of Monterrey, some governors are blatantly disregarding the Constitution. It is a threat of secession from the Republic and must not be allowed.

As for the CIA, it has violated the Mexican Constitution and I do not believe that its prompt expulsion from the national territory can be avoided.