Mexican Governor Denies Being Targeted By The U.S. For Being a 'Suspected Terrorist': 'Completely False'

A Mexican governor is at the center of a controversy this week after a local journalist reported he has been flagged as a security threat in the United States, which considers him a "suspected terrorist."

The official in question is Alfonso Durazo, governor of the state of Sonora. On Sunday, journalist Luis Chaparro published on social media what appeared to be a document with the word Durazo and "Suspected Terrorist" highlighted in red above.

Chaparro claimed the document was issued by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and would entail Durazo's immediate detention if he were to enter the United States.

The governor, however, denied that was the case. Sonora official Paloma Teran said the article is "completely fake and lacks supporting documentation," according to Infobae. She added that no authorities have confirmed the veracity of the reporting and is aimed at attacking the governor. "These attacks illustrate the desperation of those who are seeing how Sonora is moving forward with order, honesty and results," Teran added.

The report comes shortly after an article claimed that the Trump administration is pressuring Mexico to ramp up the prosecution and extradition of local politicians suspected of having ties with cartels if they have to answer to criminal charges there.

Concretely, Reuters detailed that the State Department brought up the issue at least three times in bilateral meetings. Officials called for action against politicians from the party led by President Claudia Sheinbaum, Morena, and threatened with imposing additional tariffs should their demands not be met.

Mexico's Foreign Ministry rejected the report in a social media post, claiming that it is "absolutely false that in the meetings with Secretary Rubio or his team at the State Department, that requests have been made to investigate, prosecute or extradite any Mexican official."

The country's most emblematic case is that of former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, who was sentenced to pay over $2.4 billion in damages for their involvement in a vast corruption and money laundering scheme that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from the Mexican government.

In a related criminal case, García Luna was convicted in February 2023 by a U.S. federal jury in Brooklyn on charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution conspiracy, and making false statements. He was sentenced in October 2024 to 38 years in federal prison and fined $2 million for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel, facilitating the transportation of over a million kilograms of cocaine into the United States.