Mexico urges US to avoid unauthorized operations after fatal Chihuahua crash; state prosecutor resigns

MEXICO CITY, April 27 (Reuters) – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday her government told the United States, via a diplomatic note, that the unauthorized presence of U.S. officials at an anti-narcotics operation in northern Chihuahua state should not be repeated.

Two U.S. officials and two Mexican officials were killed in a car crash on April 19 after the operation. The presence of the U.S. officials rekindled U.S.-Mexico tensions over security cooperation.

The fallout prompted Chihuahua’s prosecutor, Cesar Jauregui, to resign late on Monday, saying he had provided an inconsistent account of events.

Sheinbaum has said the federal government was not aware the U.S. officials, identified by sources as CIA officers, had been involved in the operation.

“What we told (the U.S.) was that the federal government didn’t know about the involvement of these people (in the operation) and we hope that it’s an exception,” Sheinbaum said in her daily morning press conference.

Mexico requested that “our constitution and national security law should be followed,” Sheinbaum said, adding the U.S. had indicated its agreement.

The presence of U.S. personnel in anti-cartel operations is a deeply sensitive matter in Mexico. Sheinbaum has ​long maintained that she welcomes intelligence sharing and security cooperation but will not accept U.S. agents or forces participating in operations on Mexican territory.

In contrast, U.S. President Donald Trump ​has repeatedly called for greater use of U.S. military force to combat Mexican cartels, and has threatened that the U.S. could go it alone if Washington feels Mexico isn’t doing enough.

CONFLICTING INFORMATION

On Saturday, Mexico’s security cabinet said in a statement that the U.S. officials lacked formal accreditation to participate in security activities in Mexico and that one of them had entered the country as a tourist.

The day after the crash, Jauregui had said the U.S. officials did not take part in the lab raid, but instead were later picked up by Mexican personnel involved in the operation at a separate location. They were being driven to the state capital when the accident occurred, Jauregui said.

However, Jauregui said on Monday he had provided conflicting information, although he did not offer specifics about which details had been incorrect.

“Regarding the events that have come to light around the presence of individuals who identified themselves as alleged foreign officials, the information we initially had – and which I shared with the public – was inconsistent,” he said in a statement issued by the Chihuahua Attorney General’s office, and which Jauregui read out at a press conference.

“There were omissions both in the information and in the institutional handling of points of contact with those individuals.” He added he hoped his resignation would allow authorities to “restore public trust.”

(Reporting by Raul Cortes, additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Daina Beth Solomon; writing by Kylie Madry; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Neil Fullick)