MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she would demand explanations after four U.S. and Mexican officials died in an accident over the weekend, adding she was unaware of collaboration between the U.S. and the local government in northern Chihuahua.
Sheinbaum said she wanted to ensure no laws were broken after Sunday’s deaths, which the state attorney general said happened while the officials were returning from an operation to destroy clandestine laboratories in a rural area.
The U.S. Embassy on Monday declined to identify who the U.S. officials were or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations.”
“It was not an operation that the security cabinet was aware of,” Sheinbaum told journalists. “We were not informed; it was a decision by the Chihuahua government.” She said they must have authorization from the federal government for such collaboration at the state level “as established by the Constitution.”
The accident comes at a time when Mexico has felt escalating pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Sheinbaum administration to crack down on cartels. His government has launched joint military operations in Ecuador.
