{"id":768691,"date":"2026-05-02T18:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/768691\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:01:16","slug":"mexican-governor-accused-by-u-s-of-aiding-drug-cartel-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/768691\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Governor Accused by U.S. of Aiding Drug Cartel Steps Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rub\u00e9n Rocha Moya, the Mexican governor indicted by the United States<\/a> this week, said Friday night that he would temporarily step down from his post, expanding the political fallout from accusations that he aided a powerful drug cartel for years.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rocha, 76, said in a two-minute recorded statement<\/a> late Friday that he was innocent but would take \u201ca temporary leave of absence\u201d as governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa to focus on defending himself from the accusations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can look my people and my family in the eye because I have not betrayed them and I never, ever will,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I will demonstrate that firmly when the justice institutions of our country require it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Rocha\u2019s case has dominated the national conversation in Mexico since Manhattan prosecutors unsealed an indictment on Wednesday accusing him and nine other current and former Mexican officials of a yearslong conspiracy to protect the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for bribes and political support. The cartel has long dominated Sinaloa<\/a>, a state of three million on Mexico\u2019s western coast, and prosecutors portrayed Mr. Rocha as central to the group\u2019s impunity since his election in 2021.<\/p>\n

Juan de Dios G\u00e1mez Mend\u00edvil, the mayor of Culiac\u00e1n, the state capital of Sinaloa, also on Friday announced he would temporarily step down from his post after being named in the indictment.<\/p>\n

In a letter read aloud by another official at a special session of the Culiac\u00e1n City Council, the mayor maintained his innocence and requested a leave of absence that would last while authorities investigated the claims against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am certain that it will be proven that I have never deviated from the law,\u201d Mr. G\u00e1mez said. \u201cTruth and justice will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has responded warily to the U.S. indictment, refusing to order Mr. Rocha\u2019s arrest as American prosecutors requested, saying they lacked enough evidence. She said that Mexico\u2019s attorney general\u2019s office would instead investigate Mr. Rocha.<\/p>\n

The indictment has put Ms. Sheinbaum in a difficult position. Mr. Rocha is a prominent member of her party, Morena, but the Trump administration has been putting intense pressure on her to crack down on cartels and corruption.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rocha\u2019s decision to take a leave of absence instead of resigning had a clear advantage for him. As an elected official, Mr. Rocha has immunity from criminal conviction, which must be stripped by Mexico\u2019s Congress if he is to face charges. His leave of absence allows him to step down from his position while retaining his immunity.<\/p>\n

David Shortell contributed reporting from Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rub\u00e9n Rocha Moya, the Mexican governor indicted by the United States this week, said Friday night that he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":768692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,310470,112664,5959,315284,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,91183,313372,313373,199375,313374,9615,277,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-768691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bribery-and-kickbacks","tag-claudia","tag-donald-j","tag-immunity-from-prosecution","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-politics-and-government","tag-rocha-moya","tag-ruben-1949","tag-sheinbaum","tag-sinaloa-mexico","tag-sinaloa-cartel","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116506295449383989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}