Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has denied reports that her government is teaming up with the United States for a \u201cmajor new initiative\u201d to combat drug-trafficking cartels.<\/p>\n
In her Tuesday morning news conference, Sheinbaum addressed the initiative, dubbed \u201cProject Portero\u201d, which was touted in the US as an effort to \u201cstrengthen collaboration between the United States and Mexico\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had unveiled the initiative only one day prior.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to clarify something. The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying that there is an agreement with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,\u201d Sheinbaum said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no agreement with the DEA. The DEA puts out this statement, based on what we don\u2019t know. We have not reached any agreement; none of the security institutions [have] with the DEA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum emphasised that only her administration, not individual government agencies, would be announcing such an agreement on behalf of Mexico.<\/p>\n
She also emphasised that the DEA needed to follow established protocols for making joint announcements.<\/p>\n
Project Portero is part of an ongoing push under\u00a0US President Donald Trump to stamp out cross-border drug trafficking and aggressively pursue the cartels and criminal networks that profit from such trade.<\/p>\n
In its statement<\/a> on Monday, the DEA called Project Portero its \u201cflagship operation\u201d aimed at shutting down drug-smuggling corridors along the border.<\/p>\n It described its partnership with Mexico as \u201ca multi-week training and collaboration program\u201d that would bring Mexican investigators together with US enforcement officials at an intelligence site on the southwest border.<\/p>\n Part of their task, the statement said, was to \u201cidentify joint targets\u201d for the two countries to pursue.<\/p>\n \u201cProject Portero and this new training program show how we will fight \u2014 by planning and operating side by side with our Mexican partners,\u201d DEA administrator Terrance Cole said in the statement<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a bold first step in a new era of cross-border enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n But Sheinbaum said no such bilateral action was planned, though she speculated that the DEA might be referring to a small training exercise involving four Mexican police officers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing we have is a group of police officers from the Secretariat of Citizen Security who were conducting a workshop in Texas,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n She did, however, point out that her government was actively working with the Trump administration to cement a border security agreement, based on mutual acknowledgements of sovereignty and respectful coordination.<\/p>\n Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump has repeatedly pressured the Sheinbaum government to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs across their countries\u2019 shared border.<\/p>\n That includes through the threat of tariffs, a kind of tax imposed on imports. In late July, Trump announced<\/a> he would keep tariffs on Mexican products at their current rate for 90 days.<\/p>\n Previously, he had threatened to hike the tariff rate to 30 percent on the basis that fentanyl was still reaching US soil.<\/p>\n \u201cMexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground,\u201d Trump wrote in a letter to Sheinbaum earlier that month.<\/p>\n Even with the 90-day pause, Mexico still faces a 25-percent tax \u2014 which Trump calls a \u201cfentanyl tariff\u201d \u2014 on all products that do not fall under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA).<\/p>\n Still, Trump has expressed warmth towards Sheinbaum, and the Mexican leader has largely avoided public confrontations with the US since taking office in October 2024.<\/p>\n Recently, Sheinbaum\u2019s government coordinated<\/a> with Trump\u2019s to transfer 26 high-profile drug-trafficking suspects to the US for prosecution.<\/p>\n In February, she made a similar deal, sending 29 alleged cartel leaders<\/a> from Mexican prisons to the US shortly before Trump threatened to impose tariffs on her country\u2019s imports. It was Mexico\u2019s largest prisoner transfer to the US in years.<\/p>\n But Sheinbaum has also faced scrutiny over her handling of Trump\u2019s aggressive foreign policy platform.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, for instance, Trump\u2019s State Department issued travel warnings<\/a> for 30 of Mexico\u2019s 32 states, warning Americans of \u201cterrorist\u201d activities in those areas.<\/p>\n