Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo rejects U.S. interference over Rocha Moya case
claudia sheinbaum pardo said Mexico will not allow a foreign government to intrude on decisions that belong to the people of Mexico after U.S. accusations against Rubén Rocha Moya. On Thursday, the Mexican president drew a line between criminal allegations and outside pressure, saying Mexico would not cover up anyone who committed a crime.
“nosotros no vamos a cubrir a nadie que haya cometido un delito. Sin embargo, si no existen pruebas claras, es evidente que el objetivo de estas imputaciones por parte del Departamento de Justicia (de EE.UU.) es político,” Sheinbaum said during her daily morning news conference. She added: “Debe quedar sumamente claro: bajo ningún motivo vamos a permitir la intromisión o injerencia de un gobierno extranjero en las decisiones que le competen exclusivamente al pueblo de México.”
Rocha Moya’s response
Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa and a member of Morena, rejected the accusations and called them a “calumnia” and “carente de “veracidad y fundamento alguno”.” U.S. prosecutors said Rocha Moya would have received Sinaloa Cartel support to be elected, including pressure against rivals, and would have allowed the group to operate without intervention from state authorities once in office.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York accused ten Mexican officials and former officials of collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel. The accusations sharpened tensions between the United States and Mexico at a moment when the cartel’s founders, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his associate Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, remain central to the case’s political weight.
Sinaloa and Morena
Rocha Moya was born on 15 June 1949 in Badiraguato, Sinaloa. His political career began in 1968, when he was elected secretary of the Federation of Socialist Campesino Student Federations of Mexico, and by the early 1980s he led the Single Union of Workers of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
He first ran for governor in 1986 with a left-wing alliance that included PSUM, PMT, PRT and Corriente Socialista, winning just over 2% of the vote. From 1989 to 1992, he served as secretary general of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. That history helps explain why the accusations carry more than a legal dimension: they reach into a long-running political figure with deep ties in Sinaloa and within Mexico’s governing movement.
Mexico-U.S. dispute
Sheinbaum’s public rejection leaves the dispute focused on proof, sovereignty and the next move by U.S. prosecutors. Rocha Moya has denied the allegations in categorical terms, while the U.S. side has tied them to broader cartel collusion claims against ten Mexican officials and former officials.
The immediate question now sits with the evidence cited by the U.S. Department of Justice and how Mexico’s institutions respond if those accusations are pursued further. For Sinaloa’s governor, the confrontation is already in the open; for Mexico and the United States, it adds another strain to a bilateral fight over narcotrafficking and political pressure.
