At her Monday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to a question about a newspaper report that focuses on a corruption case that has embroiled the ruling Morena party’s top senator.
Among other remarks, Sheinbaum revealed who will become the next chief of the federal government’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
Sheinbaum denies that Tabasco corruption case is affecting relationship with US
A reporter referred to a report in an “international media outlet” about Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández and his relationship with Hernán Bermúdez, an alleged criminal group leader who served as security minister in Tabasco during the 2019-21 governorship of López Hernández.
She was referring to a New York Times article published under the headline “Corruption Scandal Puts Mexico’s President on Defense Against Trump.”
“Two former officials are on the run, accused of secretly leading a criminal group,” reported the Times, referring to Bermúdez and Leonardo Arturo Leyva Ávalos, ex-general director of the Tabasco state police.
“Their old boss, now a powerful senator in the president’s party, is being grilled over what he knew. And the timing could not be worse for Mexico’s president, who faces the corruption scandal as President Trump doubles down on accusations that drug cartels have the Mexican government in their grip,” the Times’ report continued.
“At the scandal’s center is the senator, Adán Augusto López Hernández, a former interior minister and governor of Tabasco State,” the newspaper said.
Opposition formally accuses AMLO’s ex-interior minister of ties to Tabasco crime gang
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) last week formally requested that the Federal Attorney General’s Office investigate López Hernández for criminal association.
On Monday morning, the aforementioned reporter told the president that the (New York Times’) report “specifically mentions that this case intensifies or strains the relationship the government of Mexico maintains with the United States.”
She subsequently asked Sheinbaum her opinion on the matter.
“It’s not true,” the president said.
“Regarding this case and any [other] case, we’ve said here we are not going to cover up for anyone, but there must be investigations,” Sheinbaum said.
“… There is no problem of tension [with the United States] related to this,” she declared.
Sheinbaum compared The New York Times’ reporting to a ProPublica article from May, in which journalist Tim Golden referred to a U.S. government “list of several dozen [Mexican] political figures who have been identified by law enforcement and intelligence agencies as having ties to the drug trade.”
“Tim Golden … [claimed] that there was terrible tension [between Mexico and the United States] because there were I don’t know how many people on a list,” she said.
“And then the United States Embassy [in Mexico] released a statement that said: ‘there is no person and no list,’” Sheinbaum said.
“There are people who don’t want there to be a good relationship between Mexico and the United States,” she added.
Sheinbaum acknowledged there are “differences” of opinions between Mexico and the United States, but reiterated that her government seeks a “good relationship” with the Trump administration.
“Firstly, because we’re trade partners and we want the [USMCA] trade agreement to continue and for … [our] economic integration to continue,” she said four days after reaching an agreement with Trump that allowed Mexico to avoid 30% tariffs that were due to take effect last Friday.
“Secondly, because millions of Mexican families live in the United States,” Sheinbaum said.
“… There are those who look for arguments that aren’t real in order to say ‘there is a special tension’ … but there isn’t,” she said.
“In fact, as I have mentioned, there is an agreement we’re about to sign on security issues,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the bilateral pact has “very clear principles” with respect to “sovereignty, mutual confidence and territorial respect.”
The president last week rejected claims that the United States has been pressuring Mexico to hand over politicians with alleged narco links. She also stressed that there is no active investigation against López Hernández, who left his position as governor to become interior minister in the government of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Sheinbaum announces new Financial Intelligence Unit chief
Sheinbaum announced that Omar Reyes Colmenares, ex-head of the Prevention and Social Reinsertion unit of the federal Security Ministry, will replace Pablo Gómez as chief of Mexico’s Finance Ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), which plays an important role in the fight against organized crime.
Gómez will move to a role heading up a presidential electoral reform commission.
Sheinbaum said that the appointment of Reyes — who is reportedly “very close” to Security Minister Omar García Harfuch — is subject to approval by the Permanent Commission of the Mexican Congress.
She said that Reyes is “a very intelligent man” who formerly worked “in the area of penitentiary centers.”
Sheinbaum said that he also worked in her Mexico City administration when she was mayor, “first in an intelligence area, and later he was responsible for penitentiary centers.”
“He’s an intelligence specialist,” she said, adding that he is well-suited to the UIF role.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
