US drug policy in Latin America is just a means to an end: dominance and control, an extension of their imperialist foreign policy, writes José Luis Granados Ceja.

For all their bluster about the dangers from “narcoterrorist” organizations, we need to be clear: the US doesn’t give a shit about drug trafficking, especially the Donald Trump administration. If they did, the US president wouldn’t have pardoned and released former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a narco trafficker convicted in New York who, according to leaked audios, is returning the favor by conspiring against leftist governments in the region. If Washington gave a shit about organized crime, their closest regional ally would not be Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, who faces credible allegations of ties to drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.

US drug policy in Latin America is just a means to an end: dominance and control, an extension of their imperialist foreign policy. That’s how we should understand the US seeking the arrest and extradition of Sinaloa Governor Rúben Rocha Moya on alleged drug trafficking offenses.

President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the federal Attorney General’s Office will investigate the allegations, the correct action for any sovereign state. We should treat US indictments — largely based on testimony by plea-seeking witnesses — with a grain of salt. Should the allegations against Rocha, who correctly has stepped away from office, prove credible, he should be tried inside Mexico. The US cannot be trusted.

Mexicans won’t look kindly on politicians and political parties that embrace the empire, caring for US national security but not the lives of Mexicans.

Given its timing, distrust of the indictment has only grown. It was made public during a diplomatic crisis between Mexico and the US after a car crash in opposition-run Chihuahua inadvertently revealed that CIA agents are illegally operating in Mexico. Since 2020, a law passed under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressly bans foreign agents from participating in operations.

The Rocha indictment is a “hail Mary” to save US ally Maru Campos, the right-wing governor who allowed the CIA to work illegally inside Mexico. It reveals US strategy — if they can’t work with Mexico’s national government, then they will find a *vendepatria,*ortraitor, who will let them in.

Sheinbaum hoped to characterize the illegal participation of US agents in Mexican operations as a one-off exceptional case, but reports say there were other operations involving US agents. Since US Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson himself comes from a long and sordid CIA background, it would be foolish to think infiltration will stop.

Undoubtedly, the US DOJ’s unsealing of the indictment against Rocha and nine other public officials has created the most serious crisis facing the Fourth Transformation; how Sheinbaum handles this will likely determine her government’s future. A real danger is that the US could conduct a Venezuela-style operation and kidnap Rocha, as when the US kidnapped Ismael El Mayo Zambada in July 2004.

But this scenario is a trap for the opposition. It reveals that foreign intervention is their only hope. Mexicans won’t look kindly on politicians and political parties that embrace the empire, caring for US national security but not the lives of Mexicans.

José Luis Granados Ceja is a journalist and political analyst based in Mexico City. He is co-host of the Mexican public television show Sin Muros, and currently covers Latin America for Drop Site News, and writes a monthly opinion column for the Mexico Solidarity Project and also co-hosts the weekly podcast, Soberanía.

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