MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday denied a Reuters report about the U.S. pushing Mexico to investigate politicians with suspected links to organized crime.
Sheinbaum, in her daily press conference, called the story “fake news” and questioned the timing of the story, which was published the morning Sheinbaum met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
“Don’t you find it strange that when we were in the meeting, a story came out from, I think it was Reuters, saying that they were asking us to give names of Mexican politicians… There’s nothing more false than that,” Sheinbaum said.
The story published on Wednesday, based on four sources, said the request had been raised at least three times by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team in bilateral meetings and conversations with Mexican officials.
The U.S. asked that politicians suspected of being tied to the cartels also be potentially extradited to the United States if there are criminal charges to answer there.
“We stand by our reporting,” a Reuters spokesperson said.
The Reuters story did not assert that Mexico had been asked to hand over names of Mexican politicians, but that the U.S. had pressured the Mexican government to investigate current elected officials, even if they were from the president’s own Morena party.
A crackdown – potentially targeting high-ranking elected officials while they are in office – would mark a dramatic escalation of Mexico’s efforts against drug corruption. But it carries political risks for Sheinbaum, as some of the allegations involve members of her own party, a member of her security cabinet told Reuters.
Reuters was unable to determine if the U.S. had provided Mexico with a list of politicians suspected of links to organized crime, or evidence against them. Nor was Reuters able to independently confirm if any individuals flagged by the U.S. had engaged in any wrongdoing.
(Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Lisa Shumaker)
