Rocha Moya: “Since May 1 I Have Remained at My Home in Culiacán”

ByRedacción/SinEmbargo

This article by Redacción/SinEmbargo originally appeared in the July 9, 2026 edition of SinEmbargo, a Mexican independent digital news outlet.

Mexico City, July 9 (SinEmbargo).— The constitutional governor on leave of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, published a message on social media today in which he maintained that he has remained in Culiacán, after nearly two and a half months since he requested to temporarily step down from his post following accusations by the United States (U.S.) of having ties to drug trafficking.

In the post, Rocha Moya reported that on May 1 he requested leave with the aim of facilitating an investigation by the authorities, by renouncing his constitutional immunity, over the accusations against him and nine other officials and former officials of the Government of Sinaloa.


“I did it out of my conviction as a Mexican who trusts in the institutions and the laws of our country, so that, without the protection of the constitutional immunity inherent to my post, I may be investigated fully and without any hindrance by the competent authorities,” he noted in his message.

According to the state leader, since that day he has remained in Culiacán, and he added that, contrary to information spread by the commentator Carlos Loret de Mola, he is not protected “nor guarded by members of any federal corporation.”

Rocha Moya also stated that he had appeared before the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to respond “in a precise and truthful manner” to the questions of the Federal Public Prosecutor.

In another part of his message, the governor on leave rejected the charges brought against him by a U.S. government office, calling them “false,” and considered that he has been the target of “an atrocious media onslaught of slander and accusations without any factual or legal basis.”

“Today it is clear that this is an attack promoted from the far right, with the aim of undermining national sovereignty and stigmatizing the most important transformation movement in favor of the poor on the continent,” he concluded.

Rocha Moya “Is at Home”: Sheinbaum

This morning, President Claudia Sheinbaum denied during her morning press conference that the Government of Mexico is covering up or protecting the Governor of Sinaloa, and stated that the former official is at his home.

“That the Government of Mexico has the governor on leave of Sinaloa hidden away is absolutely false. The man is at his home and doesn’t even have federal protection […]. So many absurd lies are told to harm the Government,” the federal leader explained.

Likewise, the head of the federal Executive reiterated that in her Administration no guilty party will be protected, but the processes established by Mexican Law will continue in order to guarantee the country’s national sovereignty.

For its part, the Security Cabinet issued a statement in which it rejected the information published in El Universal and El Financiero that federal forces had transferred Rubén Rocha Moya to a military installation with the intention that the Army hide him and provide him protection.

“No institution that makes up the Security Cabinet carried out an operation for that purpose. Likewise, it is false that Rubén Rocha Moya is or has remained under the protection of the Army in the 9th Military Zone, in the III Military Region, or in any other military installation in the country,” the statement from the federal authorities reads.

In the document, the agency stated that in the Government of Mexico no one is protected, and that the zero impunity policy is applied without distinction of positions, political affiliations, or personal relationships, and that its results are public and verifiable.