The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, reacted to an investigation by the digital outlet Animal Político, which documented a 450% increase in the detention of two thousand 600 U.S. citizens in Mexico during her term and that of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. According to the investigation, the number of detainees has nearly tripled, increasing from 1.1 daily under López Obrador to 3 during Sheinbaum's administration, which she took office on October 1.
In light of this situation, Sheinbaum mentioned that in her conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump, she has raised the presence of U.S. citizens involved in organized crime activities in Mexico. She expressed that both countries need to collaborate not only in information and intelligence for detentions in Mexico but also in detentions required on U.S. territory.
The president emphasized that the problem is not solely in the drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, but in who distributes those substances on U.S. soil, especially in the case of fentanyl. Recently, a 52-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested in Zihuatanejo for drug trafficking and firearms trafficking offenses, who had an extradition order after escaping from a federal prison in his country.
Sheinbaum stressed the importance of cooperation and coordination between both countries in the fight against organized crime, reiterating the need for the United States to also take responsibility in the detention of individuals involved in illicit activities.