Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that the presence of agents of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the state of Chihuahua took place without complying with Mexico's Ley de Seguridad Nacional (National Security Law), and asked the Fiscalía General de la República (Attorney General's Office, or FGR) to continue the investigations already open into the case.
"Any agent of a US agency in Mexico necessarily has to comply with the National Security Law," the president said at her morning press conference at the Palacio Nacional. She added, referring to Chihuahua's former attorney general: "In this case it was not complied with, and that is why the prosecutor is in custody."
Her remarks responded to a report by The New York Times, relayed by Mexican media, according to which the US agency maintained a presence in Chihuahua from 2025 with the collaboration of Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo, then the state's prosecutor for strategic operations.
The El Pinal operation
The criminal case begins with an operation against a clandestine synthetic-drug laboratory in El Pinal, in the municipality of Morelos, Chihuahua, carried out between 17 and 19 April 2026. It involved agents of the state investigation agency, soldiers and two US citizens.
A day later, four people returning from the area died when their vehicle went off a ravine: two state agents and the two Americans, later identified as presumed CIA members. Neither of the two survived.
On 20 April, the state prosecutor's office maintained that only state agents and soldiers had taken part in the operation, and described the Americans as embassy workers carrying out training duties. The FGR later said the opposite: that the two foreigners intervened directly and without the required authorisation.
Irregularities flagged by federal prosecutors include the absence of a prior case file, notification of the federal authorities only after the intervention, and the failure to formally hand over the site, the substances and the evidence with the corresponding chain of custody.
One former prosecutor in custody, another on the run
César Jáuregui resigned as Chihuahua's attorney general on 27 April 2026 and was detained on 17 October in the city of Chihuahua. State criminal case 3055/2026 charges him with unlawful exercise of public office and collusion of public servants; the FGR also announced a federal arrest warrant for conduct that could amount to treason in national security matters.
Attorney General Ernestina Godoy said the investigation involved more than 100 office and field procedures, and that Jáuregui is alleged to have permitted the unauthorised intervention of foreigners.
Zuany, who resigned on 13 May, remains a fugitive. "It is worth knowing who this person is and how he collaborates with one of the United States' agencies," Sheinbaum said, calling it relevant to the investigation to clarify that link.
The governor and the diplomatic channel
The report attributes to Zuany the claim that Chihuahua's governor, Maru Campos, knew about the presence of the US agents. The state prosecutor's office replied that there is no evidence she knew of or authorised it. In an interview with Latinus published on 14 October, Campos had said she was unaware of the Americans' involvement and blamed those who acted "on their own".
Sheinbaum said the complaint had been conveyed to the US ambassador and to US authorities, and that no foreign agent may operate on Mexican territory outside the legal framework: "Any collaboration has to guarantee respect for the Constitution."
The legal point at issue is not cooperation itself: the National Security Law does not prohibit joint work with foreign agencies, but conditions it on prior authorisations and records that, according to the FGR, did not exist in El Pinal.
With information from MVS Noticias, Por Esto! and Infobae.
