The Trump administration began to impose restrictions on trips and other sanctions to the famous Mexican politicians who are believed to be related to drug corruption, the US officials said.
So far, two Mexican politicians have admitted that they had been banned from traveling to the United States. But US officials said they would expect more Mexicans because the administration works on the list of dozens of political figures who were identified by law enforcement and special services as a connection with drug trafficking.
The list includes the heads of President Claudia Sheinbaum, several state governors and political figures close to her predecessor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez, US officials said. They insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive politics plans.
The Governor of the Mexican state of Baja California, Marina Del Pilaer Avila, confirmed that she and her husband, a former congressman, said that their visas in the United States were recalled from the “situation” with the participation of her husband. “The fact that the State Department canceled my visa does not mean that I have done something bad,” she said at a press conference on Monday.
Sheinbaum stated that her government asked us to explain why Avila deprived her of the visas, but she was told that such issues were private and no additional information.
Visa actions are the last political task for the new Mexican leader and its left national regeneration movement known as Maren. Despite the country’s historical sensitivity to any hints on the US intervention, Sheinbaum has still supported his home support, claiming Mexico’s sovereignty in discussions with President Donald Trump, as well as going to his demands against the largest traders.
Mexican journalists report that US immigration officials also pulled out a visa of another governor of the Border Guard State of America Villarreal from Tamalipas, claiming the governor’s spokesman dismissed as “unconfirmed”. (Villarreal is often accused of connecting drug trafficking.) Last month, the mayor of the second largest city Matamoras was stopped from crossing the Bransville, Texas, but he also insisted that he was not officially deprived of the visa.
The State Department’s press -secretary refused to comment, noting that the visa entries in accordance with the US law.
Three US officials said the visa action will probably in some cases be accompanied by the sanctions of the Ministry of Finance that block people from doing business with US companies and freeze the financial assets they own in the US. Avila said she had no bank accounts in the US and did not face such a sanction.
The press secretary of the Ministry of Finance refused to comment on the sanctions plan.
Credit:
Tom Breren/The Washington Post/Getty Images
When the administration imposed tariffs on Mexico in early March, it claimed that the country’s government gave “safe shelters for cartels to engage in the production and transportation of dangerous narcotics, which combined the death of hundreds of thousands of US victims.”
As part of the fact that he called the comprehensive fight against Fentonil and other illegal drugs, the administration has appointed some of the largest Mexican bands on terrorist trade and studied the possibility of unilateral hostilities in the US, officials said.
The review of Mexican corruption drugs was initiated by a small White House team, which demanded information from law enforcement and the US intelligence community on Mexican political, government and military figures with criminal relations.
Officials said the group formed an administration security policy under the guidance of the Deputy Internal Security Advisor Anthony Salisbury. He is overseen by Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The White House press -secretary refused to comment on questions about the role of the group in initiating travel sanctions.
One official, familiar with the team list, said he was overlapping with the help of about 35 Mexican officials, which was drawn up by the Investigative Drug Administration in 2019, after Lopez Abrader began to close Mexico’s cooperation with the United States in the Controdedru programs.
What earlier efforts have sought to determine the Mexico government, who could be criminally pursued for the assistance of drug dealers. This led to the 2019 US Security Chief of the United States Genar Garcia Luna and his beliefs on drug charges three years later in the New York Federal Court.
Both former DEA officials in Mexico Cuinaging the 2019 list collection, Turrans Cole and Matthew Donauh, also suggested that the State Department abolish the US visas of some Mexican political figures named there. US senior diplomats rejected this proposal.
Cole is now waiting for the Senate to confirm as a new DEA administrator Trump.
Some current and former US officials have expressed concern over the last plan under the direction of the White House. They noted that the standard of evidence required for both visa and Treasury sanctions is much lower than in the criminal process, which can encourage fans to act on what could be less solid.
Officials said the visa actions are adopted in accordance with the section 212 of the Immigration and National Act, which provides that disobediences can be found invalid to enter the US if the government “knows my reasons” that the foreigner is either a knowledge of teaching, an assistant, a conspirator, or The State Department will abolish the visas of relatives of the sanctioned official, who may have taken advantage of his prohibition income.
One of the US officials said while lifting a visa could send a powerful signal to the United States to challenge Mexican corruption, they can also shake a new conflict between the two governments.
“We must use all government resources to follow these people,” the official said, citing corrupt Mexican officials. “But the bigger question is: Does President Sheinbaum work?
Former Mexico Ambassador to Washington, Arthur Saruhaan, said further visa actions against famous figures in the Sheinbaum party will make her to continue to declare “good” relations with the United States, despite the often openly confrontational tone of Trump.
“But at the same time,” Saruhaan added, “it gives her – a nationalist president with a very chauvinist party behind it – a great opportunity to say that everything is bad that happens in Mexico with the economy, and everything else is from the imperialism.”
Lopez Abrador, who came to power in 2018, promised to fight corruption as ever. Instead, he managed an administration that denied problems with corruption in his own ranks, even when the journalists came up with the report after the report that officials close to the president and even his own sons were engaged in profits and vaccinations.
Sheinbaum struck another tone. In the report of the Congress of the party Marena on May 4, she warned believers about the danger of maple, kumatism and corruption.
“All Marena members must carry out honesty, humility and simplicity,” she said. “There can be no conspiracy with crime – or a white collar is organized.”
