The United States criticizes Mexico for the dissemination of the DEA report against General Cienfuegos

Former Mexican Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos during a military event in 2016.Henry Romero / Reuters

The US Administration expressed its deep discomfort on Friday night over the dissemination of the DEA file against General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda ordered by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made public the report sent by Washington with which the anti-drug agency sought to support its accusations and demonstrate the alleged links of the military man, who was Secretary of Defense during Enrique Peña Nieto's administration, with the drug trafficking organization Juan Francisco Patron Sánchez, alias

a spinoff of the Beltrán Leyva brothers' cartel.

The United States Department of Justice assured that "it is deeply disappointed by Mexico's decision to publish information shared confidentially."

"The publication of such information violates the Treaty of Mutual Legal Assistance between Mexico and the United States," continues a statement, which also warns of the doubts generated by this episode and the opportunity to continue sharing information obtained on the other side of the border to support investigations by Mexican authorities.

The decision to reveal the file - which contains in its more than 700 pages thousands of interceptions of cell phone messages attributed to General Cienfuegos and leaders of the organization - came after the Attorney General's Office (FGR) shelved, on Thursday, to the investigations against the military and dismissed the accusations of drug trafficking and money laundering.

Washington also rejects the exoneration of the former head of the Armed Forces.

“We are deeply disappointed by Mexico's decision to close its investigation [...].

The United States Department of Justice fully maintains its investigation and its charges, ”the note said.

Cienfuegos was detained on October 15 at the Los Angeles airport in an operation that was kept secret and was not shared with Mexico for fear of a leak.

A month later, thanks to pressure from the Foreign Ministry and diplomatic efforts with the State Department, the military man was able to return to his country on the condition that the justice system would not abandon the investigation of the case.

His return formally meant the cancellation of the charges against him in the United States and after the exoneration agreed by the Mexican Prosecutor's Office, the former Secretary of Defense was released without charges on both sides of the border.

López Obrador went further and not only supported the judicial resolution, but also accused the DEA of trying to "fabricate" a case.

He also blamed the arrest of Cienfuegos on the electoral and campaign environment.

"How did these things happen?

You have to see times.

Politics is time.

This occurs on the eve of the elections in the United States, ”the president maintained.

“We asked them for everything they had.

If it was not like that and they have more, we are open to receive all the tests.

But we do not want speculation, fabrication of crimes, revenge and we do not accept intimidation.

We are a free, independent and sovereign country ”, he stressed.

The case has raised tension with the United States, which has already announced that it reserves the right to start the process against the general again, rejects these accusations.

"The materials released today [Friday] by Mexico show that the case against General Cienfuegos, in fact, was not fabricated," the statement from the Justice Department makes clear.

That information, he continues, shows "that the information on which he relied to accuse General Cienfuegos was legally compiled in the United States, in accordance with an appropriate judicial order from the United States and in full respect of the sovereignty of Mexico."

Washington also recalls that a federal grand jury analyzed this and other evidence and established that the criminal charges against Cienfuegos were supported by the evidence.