Sheinbaum: “Absolutely false” news about CIA & Mexican Army

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Arturo Sánchez Jiménez and Alma E. Muñoz originally appeared in the September 12, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo described as “absolutely false” the information published this week by Reuters, which claims that agents from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) participated in Mexican Army operations.

“What Reuters says is false. That report says there are CIA agents working with the Mexican Army on operations. It’s absolutely false, it’s not true,” the President stated at her press conference this Friday at the National Palace.

Sheinbaum explained that collaboration with the United States on security matters is limited to the exchange of information between agencies. She noted that when intelligence is received from the US government, it is shared with the Security Cabinet and, once confirmed, operations on national territory are carried out exclusively by Mexican institutions such as the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection, or the Attorney General’s Office.

“But it is not true that there are CIA agents involved in Mexican Army operations; that is totally false,” she emphasized.

Reuters reported that in January 2023, during the capture of Ovidio Guzmán López in Sinaloa, the CIA played a key role in preparing a “location package” with information on the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. According to the agency, the elite Army unit deployed in that operation was trained, equipped, and supervised by the CIA, as part of a years-long covert collaboration between US intelligence and the Mexican armed forces.

The president indicated that her government responded informally to the agency’s request for information, making it clear that the allegations were unfounded. “There was no written response, but they were told that what they were presuming there was unfounded,” she stated, while announcing that she could present more details on the matter next week.