At her Wednesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that Mexican bank CIBanco has launched legal action against the U.S. government and once again railed against an announcement the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) made on Monday.
She also noted that she is expecting some very important visitors before the end of the year.
Here is a recap of the president’s Aug. 20 mañanera.
CIBanco has the ‘right’ to sue US Department of the Treasury, says Sheinbaum
Sheinbaum told reporters that she was aware that CIBanco is suing the United States Department of the Treasury, which in June accused the Mexican bank, as well as the bank Intercam and the brokerage firm Vector, of laundering millions of dollars for drug cartels.
“I saw it in the media,” she said.
“… They have the right [to do so],” Sheinbaum said.
The publication law.com reported on Tuesday that “litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee has filed a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration unlawfully blacklisted Mexico’s 20th largest financial institution under false money laundering allegations.”
“The complaint alleges the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network arbitrarily blocked plaintiff CIBanco S.A. from accessing the U.S. financial system in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” the report said.
Law.com said that lawyers “deny the money laundering allegations on behalf of their client CIBanco, an international commercial bank headquartered in Mexico City.”
Beyond CIBanco’s lawsuit, Sheinbaum said that “the important thing” is that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has (once again) postponed the date on which sanctions against CIBanco, Intercam and Vector will take effect.
CIBanco, Intercam and Vector win temporary reprieve from US money laundering sanctions
Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said in a statement on Tuesday that it had “extended the effective dates for orders issued on June 25, 2025, prohibiting certain transmittal of funds involving three Mexico-based financial institutions.”
FinCEN said that “covered financial institutions” in the United States “will now have until October 20, 2025, to implement the orders prohibiting certain transmittal of funds involving” CIBanco, Intercam and Vector, “each of which FinCEN found to be of primary money laundering concern in connection with illicit opioid trafficking pursuant to the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act.”
Even though U.S. sanctions on the three financial institutions have not officially taken effect, many Mexico News Daily readers told us last month that they had experienced problems completing transfers to and from their CIBanco and Intercam accounts.
Sheinbaum: DEA statement ‘has nothing to do with reality’
Sheinbaum once again expressed her discontent with the DEA’s announcement of what it called a “bold bilateral initiative to dismantle cartel gatekeepers and combat synthetic drug trafficking.”
She said that a DEA statement announcing the supposed U.S.-Mexico initiative “has nothing to do with reality.”
“… The truth is I don’t know what their intention is [in] saying there is a special [bilateral] operation on the border when there is not,” Sheinbaum said.
“In any case, they will have to say why, say what their intention is,” she said.
Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente would seek an explanation from U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson.
Sheinbaum says Carney and Macron to visit Mexico this year
Sheinbaum told reporters that she has no plans for any more international trips in 2025.
However, she noted that several high-ranking foreign officials are planning to come to Mexico before the end of the year.
“Remember that at the end of this month, next week, [government] ministers from Brazil are coming,” Sheinbaum said.
“The prime minister of Canada is coming. The president of France is coming, between now and December,” she said.
Bloomberg reported last week that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “is planning to visit Mexico on Sept. 18, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
The news agency said that Carney is seeking “to boost trade and strengthen relations with the country amid punishing US tariffs.”
Sheinbaum didn’t say when French President Emmanuel Macron was planning to visit, but Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister María Teresa Mercado said last month that he was expected to come to Mexico at the end of November.
Asked whether U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would come to Mexico this year, Sheinbaum said it was “probable” and indicated that the main purpose of a visit would be to “close” the new Mexico-U.S. security agreement.
The president has said that the agreement is “ready,” and based on four principles: sovereignty; mutual trust; territorial respect; and coordination without subordination.”
Rubio said in May that he “intended to travel potentially to Mexico” in “the next few weeks” along with “a couple of other cabinet members to sort of finalize some … areas of [security] cooperation.”
Three months later, the secretary of state still hasn’t made it to Mexico.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
