López Obrador defends the closure of a DEA unit: "That group was infiltrated by crime"

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has defended the closure of an intelligence unit of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that received confidential information from Mexican federal authorities since the 1990s with the aim of combating drug trafficking.

This week, the

agency reported exclusively on the dissolution of this specialized group that collaborated, among other missions, in the capture of Joaquín

Guzman.

The president explained that the disintegration of the unit is not recent, but a year ago, and this was due to the fact that "that group was infiltrated by criminals."

He has also accused them of "having fabricated crimes," citing the case of General Salvador Cienfuegos, detained in the United States and later released to Mexico after strong diplomatic pressure.

The group was one of the Sensitive Investigation Units (SIU) that operate in some 15 countries and are considered essential to US agents working to dismantle smuggling networks and capture drug lords. the drug.

These units are trained by the DEA, but remain under the control of national governments.

A second Mexican unit of the SIU, based within the office of the Attorney General of the Republic and independent of the government, continues to operate, according to the agency.

The Mexican subsidiary was founded in 1997 during Ernesto Zedillo's six-year term and operated continuously as an appendix to the Federal Police during the mandates of Vicente Fox (2000 to 2006), Felipe Calderón (2006 to 2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012). to 2018), a period during which he carried out high-impact operations in the fight against drug trafficking thanks to privileged access to US intelligence information.

Among other operations, he is credited with having contributed to the first capture of Joaquín

Guzmán in 2016.

The Mexican government formally informed the DEA in April last year that the unit had been shut down, the agency reported this week.

However, it is the first time that an official source, in this case the president of Mexico, confirms the breakdown of collaboration between this specialized intelligence group and the Mexican authorities, whose work has been going on for decades.

“That happened more than a year ago, already with the change in policy.

Because we maintain cooperation, but we try to respect our sovereignty and before, they entered and left the country and did, they commanded, they did what they wanted, ”López Obrador pointed out during the press conference this Thursday.

The president has recalled the case of General Salvador Cienfuegos, as an example of how the US intelligence services had been capable of "manufacturing crimes."

The military man, who was Secretary of Defense of the Government of Peña Nieto, returned to Mexico in mid-November 2020 after being accused by the United States of cooperating with the Beltrán Leyva drug trafficking clan.

A request through diplomatic channels from the Government of López Obrador forced Washington to drop the charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, just one month after being arrested at the Los Angeles airport, on October 15 of that year.

One of the key factors for the dissolution of this unit was the statements of the then DEA agent Víctor Vázquez during the trial of El Chapo Guzmán in the United States.

The former agent not only spoke about how the most wanted capo had been arrested, but also showed videos of how he was dressed in a Navy uniform, armed like them and giving orders to that elite Mexican group, a practice outside Mexican law. .

The former agent revealed for the first time the power of the US agency over national authorities.

Shortly after, the López Obrador government considered reviewing the role of DEA agents in Mexican territory.

The relationship with the agency became even more complicated after the

, as the Mexican government made the presence of some DEA agents conditional on the presence of Mexican agents in the United States to regulate arms trafficking.

The decision was aimed at "recovering sovereignty," in the words of López Obrador.

And to avoid, as he has insisted on numerous occasions, that these foreign intelligence bodies work in national territory without being accountable to the federal authorities.

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