At her Friday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to a question about the situation in the Gaza Strip, where a “nightmare of historic proportions” is unfolding, according to the United Nations’ assistant secretary-general for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.
She also promised to bring peace to the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa, where Sinaloa Cartel infighting has claimed well over 1,000 lives since last September.
Here is a recap of the remarks the president made about Gaza and Sinaloa at her July 25 mañanera.
‘We condemn what is happening at this time,’ Sheinbaum says of the situation in Gaza
A reporter asked the president whether Mexico would add its name to an intergovernmental statement calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza.
Signed by the foreign ministers of 30 countries including those of Canada, France, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom, the statement says: “We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now.”
“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” it continues.
“… We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively,” said the July 21 statement.
Israel on Friday reportedly took the decision to allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza starting on Friday. Famine is a major problem in the besieged Palestinian territory, where scores of adults and children have died from hunger, and close to 60,000 people have been been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum said that “in all international forums,” and in Mexico, the Mexican government has made it clear that it is in favor of peace and the “peaceful” coexistence of two states — “the state of Israel and the state of Palestine.”
“Of course we condemn what is happening at this time, and Mexico is putting all its words and actions into building peace between these two states,” she said.
In March, Sheinbaum, who has a Jewish background, officially recognized Nadya Rasheed as the Palestinian Ambassador to Mexico at a ceremony held at the National Palace.
Sheinbaum: ‘We’re going to pacify Sinaloa’
A reporter noted that this Friday, July 25, marks the first anniversary of the arrest in the United States of alleged Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
She said that the arrest of Zambada — who alleges he was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López and forced onto a U.S.-bound private plane — was a “trigger” for the “war” between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, namely “Los Mayos” and “Los Chapitos.”
The reporter asked the president whether there is a “way out” of the cartel war in Sinaloa, which recorded the third highest number of homicides among Mexico’s 32 states in the first six months of 2025.
“We’re working and we’re going to pacify Sinaloa,” Sheinbaum responded.
“That will be the case. We work every day and when there is honesty, strategy and work there are results, in Sinaloa and the entire country,” she said.
“Of course Sinaloa will be pacified,” Sheinbaum added.
Like her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president has asserted that the arrest of Zambada was the result of a U.S. “operation.”
Last September, López Obrador claimed that the U.S. government was partly to blame for the wave of cartel violence in Sinaloa because it carried out an “operation” that resulted in the arrest of Zambada in the U.S. on July 25, 2024.
By “operation,” the ex-president apparently meant a negotiation with Joaquín Guzmán López — another alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader and one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons — that he believes resulted in the delivery of Zambada to U.S. law enforcement authorities at an airport in New Mexico a year ago today.
The U.S. government has denied any direct involvement in the capture of Zambada.
For much of the last year, the Mexican government has been calling on its U.S. counterpart to provide it with all the information it has about the events leading up to the arrest of Zambada.
On Friday, Sheinbaum spoke about the importance of “collaboration and coordination” between the Mexican and U.S. governments on security issues.
She expressed full confidence in her own government’s security strategy, declaring that she is “convinced we’re doing the right thing” and highlighting that homicide numbers are trending down.
“We’re going to reduce all crimes,” Sheinbaum added.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
