Sheinbaum Hits Back at Rubio: US ‘Should Attend to Its Own Drug Consumption’
MEXICO · POLITICS
Key Facts
- —The criticism U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Quito on September 9 that Mexico has done “more than they’ve ever done before” against the cartels, “but it is still not nearly enough.”
- —The reply President Claudia Sheinbaum answered on September 10: the United States should attend to its own drug consumption, and Mexico must not be used in a U.S. election campaign.
- —The backdrop Washington has designated eight Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations since February 2025, adding the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras in July 2026.
- —The cooperation Mexico has transferred 92 cartel-linked prisoners to the U.S. in three operations since February 2025, most recently 37 in January 2026.
- —The U.S. number The CDC projects 67,798 U.S. drug overdose deaths in the twelve months to March 2026 — down 12.3%, but still the core of Washington’s fentanyl argument.
- —The calendar U.S. midterm elections on November 3, 2026 will decide all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats.
Mexico’s president answered Washington’s top diplomat with a familiar sovereignty argument — and a new accusation: that her country is becoming a prop in America’s midterm campaign.
Sheinbaum drew the line on Thursday morning. One day after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mexico’s fight against drug cartels was “still not nearly enough,” President Claudia Sheinbaum used her daily press conference in Mexico City to return the criticism: the United States, she said, should attend to its own drug consumption — and Mexico must not be used as material in a U.S. election campaign.
What Rubio Said in Quito
Rubio spoke to reporters on Wednesday, September 9, during a stop in Ecuador’s capital on a three-day trip that also took him to Colombia and Peru. Asked about the regional drug fight, he praised Ecuador’s government and contrasted it with Mexico, which he called “an even graver challenge” because of the power of its cartels.
“There are territories, vast territories in Mexico that are not governed by the state,” Rubio said, according to wire reports from Quito. “That threat will have to be confronted one way or the other.” He added that Mexican authorities have done “more than they’ve ever done before to go after these groups, but it is still not nearly enough,” and said the “ideal” outcome remained joint action: “Our hope is to do it cooperatively with Mexican authorities.”
In Quito, Rubio also announced he would seek US$45 million in additional U.S. security funding for Ecuador and designated an Ecuadorian gang linked to drug trafficking as a terrorist group — part of a tour meant to reward governments Washington sees as cooperative on narcotics.
Sheinbaum’s Reply
Sheinbaum’s answer came at her morning press conference, known as the mañanera, on Thursday, September 10. Her message, as reported by Mexican and international outlets, had two parts. First, demand: the United States should attend to its own drug consumption, because without that demand there would be no supply business for the cartels. She paired it with Mexico’s standing complaint about U.S.-sourced weapons flowing south into criminal hands.
Second, politics. Sheinbaum framed Rubio’s remarks as part of the U.S. electoral campaign and said Mexico should not be dragged into it — a reference to the run-up to the November 3 midterm elections, in which all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of 100 Senate seats are contested. She has made similar sovereignty arguments whenever Washington’s rhetoric on cartels has sharpened.
A Year of Escalating Pressure
The exchange is the latest turn in a pressure campaign that has defined U.S.-Mexico relations since early 2025. On February 20 of that year, the Trump administration designated six Mexican cartels — including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) — as foreign terrorist organizations, a step Mexico’s government rejected as a violation of sovereignty. On July 16, 2026, Washington added two more groups, the Juárez Cartel and Los Viagras, to the same list.
At the same time, Mexico has given Washington cooperation it can point to. In February 2025 it transferred 29 alleged cartel figures to the United States, including longtime trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero. A second group of 26 followed in August 2025. And on January 20, 2026, Mexico sent 37 more accused cartel members north — a transfer Sheinbaum defended at the time as a “sovereign decision,” while U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the 37 “will now pay for their crimes against the American people on American soil.”
Sheinbaum’s government has also tightened fentanyl enforcement and deployed more troops to cartel strongholds, arguing that results take time. Rubio’s concession this week that Mexico has done “more than they’ve ever done before” was, for Mexican officials, the part of the quote that mattered — proof, they say, that the strategy is producing what Washington itself demanded.
The Consumption Argument, in Numbers
Sheinbaum’s demand-side argument leans on U.S. public-health data. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected 67,798 drug overdose deaths in the United States for the twelve months ending in March 2026, according to provisional figures published August 31 — a 12.3% decrease from the same period a year earlier, and the continuation of a decline that has run for roughly two years.
Mexican officials argue that even a falling number of that size shows the crisis is made in America: fed by U.S. consumers, financed by U.S. dollars and armed by U.S. guns. Washington’s counter is that supply-side pressure works — and that the falling overdose numbers are precisely why Mexico must not let up.
What It Means for Foreigners in Mexico
For the more than one million U.S. citizens estimated to live in Mexico, the quarrel is mostly rhetorical for now. Cooperation channels — intelligence sharing, extraditions, joint operations — remain open, and Rubio himself said in Quito that the “ideal” is to work with Mexican authorities rather than around them. No new U.S. measure against Mexico was announced this week.
But the election-campaign framing matters. As The Rio Times reported ahead of Sheinbaum’s second state-of-the-nation address, her government is simultaneously courting record foreign investment while resisting U.S. security demands. With the U.S. midterms on November 3 and Mexico’s own political calendar heating up, both governments now have incentives to talk tough — and equal incentives to keep the practical cooperation, from fentanyl seizures to prisoner transfers, quietly intact.
The next test is whether the words stay words. A terrorist-designation list that now covers eight Mexican cartels gives Washington legal tools short of military action; unilateral U.S. operations on Mexican soil, which Sheinbaum has ruled out repeatedly, would be a different story. For now, both capitals are campaigning — one at home, one abroad — and Mexico’s president has made clear she does not intend to be cast in the other country’s show.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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