Two US embassy "instructors" killed when the vehicle carrying them plummeted down a mountain ravine in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state on April 19 were actually CIA officers, according to a Washington Post [8] report citing anonymous sources. The revelation contradicts initial claims by Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui denying that there was "any involvement of any foreign agent" in the raid on a mountain methamphetamine lab raid in the remote southwestern corner of the state. The names of the two US personnel have not been revealed but Chihuahua State Investigations Agency (AEI [9]) director Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes and one of his agents were also killed in the crash that took place during the operation at the hamlet of El Pinal, Morelos municipality. (El Paso Times [11])
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said after the revelation of apparent CIA involvement that she is considering sanctions against the government of Chihuahua, asserting that any security collaboration with the US must be approved by Mexico's federal government. She is meanwhile demanding a meeting to discuss the matter with the governor of Chihuahua, María Eugenia Campos Galván, who is from the right-wing opposition National Action Party (PAN [12]).
Mexico's Senate Commission on Constitutional Issues is attempting to broker a dialogue between Chihuahua and federal authorities on the question. But lawmakers from Sheinbaum's leftist MORENA [13] party accused [14] Campos and the PAN of "betraying the homeland and the Mexican people" by concealing the CIA presence in Chihuahua. (CBS News [10], Animal Político [15], El Arensal [16], NACLA Update [17], La Verdad [18], La Verdad [19], Juárez)
The Washington Post reports that under CIA director John Ratcliffe [20], "the agency has taken a larger, more aggressive role in counternarcotics, one of Trump's top priorities upon assuming office. The agency has shared more intelligence with Mexican antidrug units and increased training for local counternarcotics units... It has flown unarmed drones over Mexico to help track cartel leaders and locate illicit drug labs."
CIA intelligence was apparently critical in the operation by Mexiccan federal forces in which Jalisco New Generation Cartel kingpin Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes AKA "El Mencho [21]" was killed earlier this year.
