The CIA Operated in Mexico Without Permission, Sheinbaum Says

The Mexico CIA Chihuahua crisis reaches its constitutional climax Tuesday morning when an opposition state governor walks into Mexico’s Senate to explain how American spies came to die on Mexican soil — without the federal government’s knowledge.

Mexico City and Chihuahua are openly at war over what happens when foreign intelligence agents conduct field operations on Mexican soil. The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the Mexico CIA Chihuahua confrontation reaches its institutional climax Tuesday April 28 at 10am when Governor María Eugenia “Maru” Campos appears before Mexico’s Senate to explain a clandestine April 17-19 operation against synthetic drug laboratories that left four people dead, including two confirmed CIA officers operating without federal authorization.

President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday made the federal position unambiguous. “It was either the State Prosecutor’s office or the Governor — there is no other option,” she said at her Monday morning press conference, dismissing Campos’s announcement of a state-level investigation. The implicit accusation: someone in Chihuahua state government authorized CIA presence on Mexican soil while bypassing the federal government.

What Happened in the Sierra Tarahumara

The official Chihuahua narrative: roughly 80 personnel from the State Investigation Agency (AEI) plus 73 troops from Mexico’s Ministry of Defense (Sedena) conducted a coordinated operation between April 17 and 19, 2026, dismantling six clandestine synthetic drug laboratories near El Pinal, in the Sierra Tarahumara mountainous region between the municipalities of Morelos and Guachochi. The operation reportedly took down what state authorities described as the largest methamphetamine production facility detected in Mexico — including a reactor measuring 800 square meters.

At approximately 2am on Sunday April 19, returning from the operation, a vehicle in a five-vehicle convoy plunged into a 200-meter ravine near the community of Polanco. The vehicle caught fire after the fall. Four people died: AEI Director Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes, agent Manuel Genaro Méndez Montes, and two American citizens initially identified by Chihuahua state authorities as “embassy instructors providing drone training.”

That cover narrative collapsed within 48 hours. The Washington Post and New York Times confirmed Tuesday April 21 that the dead Americans were CIA officers — Richard Leiter Johnston III, 36, and John Dudley Black, 44. Mexican investigative journalist Luis Chaparro, citing US intelligence sources, reported the unit had operated from a CIA base in Monterrey since at least January 2026, included at least four agents (two more survived in a different vehicle), and had supplied the intelligence that located drug-cartel leader “El Mencho” before his February 2026 takedown.

Why the Mexico CIA Chihuahua Operation Violates Mexican Law

Article 33 of Mexico’s Constitution prohibits foreign agents from conducting field operations on Mexican territory without explicit federal authorization. The National Security Law further specifies that any cooperation with foreign intelligence services must pass through the federal executive — specifically the Foreign Ministry and the President — not through state-level governments.

According to Mexican migration records released by the Federal Security Cabinet on Saturday April 26, one of the dead CIA officers entered Mexico as a tourist without permission to engage in remunerated activities. The other entered with a diplomatic passport — but no formal accreditation to participate in field security operations was on file with the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry delivered a formal diplomatic protest note to US Ambassador Ronald Johnson on Wednesday April 22 — the official mechanism by which one government formally protests another’s conduct. Sheinbaum has additionally said she will send a letter to all 32 Mexican states formalizing the rule that any cooperation with foreign agencies must be routed through the federal government.

The Trump Administration Pushback

The bilateral pushback has been blunt. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that “a little empathy from Claudia Sheinbaum would be worthwhile” given the two American lives lost. The Los Angeles Times separately reported the US Embassy was preparing an anticorruption campaign against Mexican officials suspected of cartel ties — a parallel pressure track Sheinbaum publicly demanded “evidence” for on Monday.

The political backdrop matters. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened US military strikes on Mexican cartels and designated several as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The Trump administration views unilateral cartel operations as legitimate self-defense against the fentanyl crisis. Sheinbaum has flatly rejected unilateral US military action: “We do not accept intervention by any foreign government.”

Within Mexico, the Chihuahua case has crossed party lines. Morena (Sheinbaum’s ruling party) and the opposition PAN both backed the Senate summons. PAN national leader Jorge Romero confirmed Campos will appear “without anything to hide” — but the partisan dynamic is sharp because Chihuahua is a PAN stronghold and Campos is positioned as a potential 2027 senatorial candidate.

What Tuesday’s Senate Hearing Will Reveal

Tuesday’s Senate hearing — beginning at 10:00am Mexico City time — will summon Governor Maru Campos and Chihuahua State Prosecutor César Jáuregui Moreno to commission. The questions are straightforward: who in the state government authorized CIA presence, when was that authorization given, what coordination protocols were followed, and which Mexican federal agencies were notified before the operation?

Campos arrived at the Chihuahua Government Palace Monday afternoon and told reporters: “I cannot speak about anything because I am under investigation.” That stance — invoking the right to remain silent during an active investigation — leaves the political risk visible. Constitutional law experts cited by Mexican press have flagged the possibility of impeachment proceedings against Campos if she is found to have deliberately concealed CIA presence from federal authorities.

For investors, the constitutional implications matter beyond the immediate diplomatic spat. The case tests whether Mexican federalism can accommodate divergent state-level security cooperation with the United States — or whether all such cooperation must flow exclusively through the federal executive. The answer shapes the future structure of US-Mexico cartel cooperation and bilateral trust at a moment when USMCA review discussions are intensifying.

What This Means for the Mexico-US Relationship

The structural picture is uncomfortable for both governments. Sheinbaum’s federal authority has been embarrassed by the discovery that foreign agents conducted operations on Mexican soil without her knowledge.

Trump’s CIA has been embarrassed by losing two officers in an exposed operation. Maru Campos has been embarrassed by the cover narrative falling apart within hours.

Yet the practical consequences may be limited. The CIA’s intelligence-sharing role in cartel takedowns — including February’s “El Mencho” capture — is broadly seen as effective.

Mexico’s federal security cooperation through García Harfuch’s office continues to function. The likely outcome is a formal protocol restating that all foreign-agency cooperation passes through Mexico City, plus political damage to Maru Campos’s senatorial ambitions, rather than rupture of the underlying security relationship.

For Sheinbaum, the moment offers an opportunity to reassert federal supremacy and Mexican sovereignty without breaking the broader cooperation architecture. For Trump, it is a small embarrassment in a much larger Latin America strategy. For Mexico, it is a constitutional reminder that sovereignty must be defended even with allies.