U.S. Corruption Indictments Put Mexico’s Sheinbaum in a Bind

On April 29, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Ruben Rocha, the governor of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, for his alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and requested that Mexican authorities extradite Rocha for prosecution in the United States. 

The indictment—which also targeted nine other officials from President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party, including the mayor of Culiacan and a sitting senator—was announced just days after the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, traveled to Sinaloa to give a speech in which he called on the Mexican government to do more to combat corruption. His comments came as the two countries, along with Canada, are renegotiating the terms of their trilateral free trade agreement, known as the USMCA.

In his remarks, Johnson appeared to foreshadow Rocha’s Indictment. The USMCA “requires our governments to criminalize bribery and corruption and enforce codes of conduct for public officials,” he said, warning that “we may soon see significant action on this front.”