After Months of Tension, Sheinbaum and the CIA Suddenly Join Forces Against CNN in Mexico

After months of friction over the presence of U.S. intelligence personnel on Mexican soil, President Claudia Sheinbaum and the CIA found themselves today on the same side of an explosive fight: both rejected a CNN report alleging that U.S. operatives had taken part in deadly covert operations against cartel targets inside Mexico.

The unusual alignment came after CNN reported that CIA operatives had expanded secret anti-cartel operations in Mexico, including alleged involvement in deadly attacks on cartel figures. Mexican authorities and the CIA denied the report, creating a rare moment in which Sheinbaum's government and the U.S. spy agency jointly pushed back against the same media narrative.

The first one to react was Mexico's Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, who rejected any claim that foreign agencies had conducted covert or lethal missions on Mexican soil, while the CIA called the CNN story false and dangerous.

"Regarding the version circulated by CNN about an explosion in Tecámac, State of Mexico, which alleges CIA involvement in operations against cartels, the Government of Mexico categorically rejects any narrative that seeks to normalize, justify, or suggest the existence of lethal, covert, or unilateral operations by foreign agencies on Mexican territory," he said on social media on Tuesday night.

Soon after, the CIA also denied CNN's report. "This is false and salacious reporting," Liz Lyons, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in social media.

Sheinbaum pushes back on the CNN report

On Thursday morning, at her morning daily press conference, Sheinbaum was incensed. The CNN report landed on one of the most politically sensitive points in Mexico's relationship with Washington: sovereignty. The president has repeatedly said she accepts intelligence sharing with the United States but will not tolerate U.S. agents carrying out operations in Mexican territory without authorization. That line hardened after two U.S. officials, identified as CIA officers, died in an April 19 car crash in Chihuahua after returning from a Mexican security operation to dismantle a drug lab. Sheinbaum later said her federal government had not been informed of their involvement and told U.S. officials such unauthorized participation should not happen again.

Ironically, in this incident with CNN, the same CIA whose presence has fueled Mexican political outrage became, at least temporarily, Sheinbaum's unlikely backup against CNN.

"CNN, supposedly an internationally recognized outlet, publishes a truly sensationalist report," Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference, according to Mexican outlets. She called the story "sensationalist" and "false" and said it was designed to suggest that CIA agents were operating in Mexico "to eliminate a person." She also said the allegation was so big that "even the CIA had to come out and deny it."

The Mexican president also mentioned The New York Times, which picked up the report.

Sheinbaum went further, tying the reports to what she described as political forces in Mexico and the United States that want to provoke a breakdown in the bilateral relationship and justify U.S. intervention. "What's important is that we don't fall into that trap and that provocation," she said, adding that Mexico cooperates against drug trafficking but that its priority is peace and security for Mexicans.

"They want to undermine my administration," she accused.

The controversy centers on the death of Francisco Beltrán, known as "El Payín," a suspected Sinaloa Cartel operator. CNN reported that the CIA had facilitated an operation connected to an explosion near the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, outside Mexico City.

CNN pushed back with correspondent Natasha Bertrand insisting that both the pertinent Mexican authorities and the CIA were contacted when preparing the report, "well before publication."