Mexico to decide on treason trial over state government’s collaboration with CIA

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Chihuahua district attorney Cesar Jauregui was arrested on October 17 and already faces charges of illegal exercise of public office, following his resignation after a car crash exposed the presence of the US agents in an operation to bust a drugs lab.

After Chihuahua authorities dismantled the lab in the mountainous Morelos municipality in April, a vehicle in the convoy on its way back from the operation crashed into a ravine. The bodies of two Mexican and two US CIA operatives were recovered from the car.

The case has enraged President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said the agents had no right to be in Mexico and the military was unaware of their presence.

Not only is it illegal for state authorities to involve a foreign spy agency in an internal investigation without permission from the federal government, but President Sheinbaum has previously condemned the Donald Trump administration’s classification of drug cartels as “terrorist” organisations specifically because it could be used as an excuse to deploy US force on other countries’ territory, undermining national sovereignty. 

The “Shield of the Americas” alliance established by the US and Trump-friendly Latin American regimes this year is ostensibly aimed at suppressing the drug trade but is widely seen as a vehicle for US military interventions across the continent.

Ms Sheinbaum amended the Mexican constitution to prohibit field operations by foreign agencies without express federal authorisation. The CIA agents were armed, which is also illegal.

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