The Sheinbaum’s dilemma after the last letter of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada: Intervener or placating Trump | International

Intervene in the case or favor caution in the relationship with the United States. That is the dilemma facing Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum in the middle of the controversy over the last letter of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. On February 25, the deadline that Sheinbaum requested to respond to the repatriation request of the former capo and founder of the Sinaloa cartel, claiming alleging, claiming Violations of due process and affirm that his arrest was “illegal.” Sheinbaum has declared that Zambada is somehow justified by stating that his capture by US authorities constituted a violation of the sovereignty of the country, but is still analyzing the room to maneuver to deal with the matter in the midst of the permanent pressure of Donald Trump Trump to harden the fight against the organized. crime. The letter from May has also opened an internal front between those who interpret it as a “threat” of the capo and consider unacceptable that the Mexican government accepts the application, and the sectors that have seen a political opportunity to criticize the position of the position of the authorities.

“We are not leaning before blackmail or threats,” Sheinbaum said at his press conference on Monday. After the letter came to light last Friday, the president anticipated the questions and declared that the possibility that his government intervenes should not be interpreted as a defense of the drug trafficker, but rather as a case of consular protection. “Beyond this person and the crimes he could have committed, the problem is the right of a Mexican citizen to be tried (in the United States), without the entire procedure being followed,” said the president, asking for time to Consult the General Office of the General (FGR) before giving their final response.

“The Mexican State has the inevitable, immediate and categorical obligation to intervene actively and forcefully in the defense of my human rights, my sovereignty as a Mexican citizen and the sovereignty of Mexico as a State, given that my transfer to the United States was the Result of a cross -border kidnapping, ”said Zambada. After his capture at the end of last July, May declared in a first letter issued from the prison that was betrayed by Joaquín Guzmán López, his godson and son of El Chapo Guzmán, and delivered to US authorities against their will.

In addition to the accusation of kidnapping, the May and its legal team argue that if the Mexican government does not act to establish limits in American extraterritorial operations in the war against drugsIt could establish a “dangerous precedent” for Washington to take similar measures against other Mexican citizens, including “politicians and officials.” They also denounce the possibility that the death penalty will be applied in their case, arguing that the position of traffic of fentanyl constitutes a crime against humanity.

“(The Mexican State) must intervene so that this matter does not result in a Collapse in the bilateral relationship“, Says one of the most controversial lines of the letter. For months there has been talk of the possibility that the May, with a criminal career that covers five decades, will reach a cooperation agreement in the United States to provide information about the links between politicians and drug traffickers, the operations of the Sinaloa cartel, and Details about your rivals. Some commentators interpret Zambada’s words as a threat to “collapse” the relationship between the two countries by revealing everything he knows.

However, Juan Manuel Delgado González, his legal advisor in Mexico, affirms that the meaning of the letter has been “distorted.” “Lord. The request for repatriation of Zambada is a legitimate right and does not constitute, under any circumstances, a threat or blackmail to the Mexican government,” says a written statement sent to El País. The Zambada team states that the United States “lacks of a valid legal basis to process it “and demands that, in any case, your client must be returned to the Mexican territory so that Washington can process its extradition” through the corresponding legal channels. “Frank Pérez, The drug dealer in the United StatesHe told the journalist Ioan Grillo that his client has not yet cooperated, but that he would be willing to declare himself guilty because he does not want to go to trial.

The document mentions as a precedent the case of Humberto Álvarez Machain, a doctor accused of the Torture and death of the agent of the Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. Álvarez Machain was kidnapped in 1990 and judged and acquitted two years later in the United States due to lack of evidence. In 1993, the doctor sued the US authorities for irregularities in their arrest and the case triggered the discussion between the two countries in a treaty against cross -border kidnapping, which, however, was not ratified by Washington. In 2003, the United States Supreme Court issued an adverse opinion against Álvarez Machain, arguing that there was not enough legal basis for the authorities to compensate.

The letter from El Mayo was delivered to the Mexican Consulate in New York on February 20, one day after the Trump administration designated six Mexican posters, including the Sinaloa cartel, As terrorist organizations. In the midst of concerns about the implications of the Decree for the Sovereignty of Mexico, Sheinbaum responded with a constitutional reform initiative to impose “the most severe penalty” to foreign agents who act on Mexican soil without authorization. Now, with the letter of El Mayo, one of the political risks is that the response of the Mexican government could be interpreted as resistance to the new Trump anti -drug campaign or, at the extreme, as a defense of criminals.

Despite having a few a priori possibilities in the legal field, given the hard line of the White House against the posters, the letter in El Mayo is an issue that has become complicated for Mexican authorities because he uses practically the same arguments that Sheinbaum used to answer Trump’s attacks and threats. It has also been a determining factor that in the center of the problem is one of the most infamous drug traffickers in the world and a priority objective for Washington for decades, and that the whole case against the boss has been marked from the beginning by the media scandals , Violence in Sinaloa and diplomatic tensions.

In the last attempt to politicize the case, there has been an effort to link one of the partners of Delgado González, Juan Pablo Penilla, with Morena, the ruling party in Mexico. “I don’t know him, there is a photograph there, but I don’t even know where he is,” said Sheinbaum, after a penilla image with her, apparently in a campaign event. The decisive block has responded that the lawyer has, instead, the ties with the National Opposition Action Party (PAN).

In this context, the president is trying to see if he can find a balance that does not compromise the bridges that he is trying to build with the Trump administration and that, at the same time, allows him to establish limits in the new chapter that the new chapter the Republican He wants to write in the war against drug trafficking. After weeks of stagnation, the case against Zambada has once again had an impact on the Mexican public as the last entanglement that Mexico faces in its complex relationship with the United States. The following hearing in the case of May in the Federal Court of Brooklyn, where Chapo Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019It is scheduled for April 22.

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