The recent sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on two banks in Mexico and a brokerage firm sparked widespread controversy and speculations about the future of financial institutions in a country where even the White House has previously accused top Mexican government officials of having an intolerable relationship with drug cartels.
The issue began last week when, as Breitbart Texas reported, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that two banks and a brokerage firm had helped drug cartels to launder money and had also helped them wire funds to China to pay for fentanyl precursors. The singled-out banks included CIBanco SA, Intercan Banco SA, and Vortex Casa de Bolsa. In the aftermath of the announcement, Mexican news outlets revealed that Vortex was owned by Alfonso Ramos, who had previously served as the Chief of Staff to former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Almost immediately after the announcement, Mexico’s federal government rushed to defend the banks, claiming that they had reviewed the allegations and found no evidence of illegalities, Breitbart Texas reported. In the following days, Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, also rushed to publicly defend the cartel-linked banks by minimizing the allegations presented by the U.S. Treasury Department and claiming that they had not provided sufficient evidence to support their claims.
Despite the public claims, Mexico’s government announced that Mexico’s National Banking Commission took management control of CIBanco and Intercam Banco.
Last week, CIBanco announced on their main website that VISA Inc. had disconnected cards issued by the bank from their international network. The move by VISA Inc. was based on the announcement from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The bank also announced that it was working with Mexico’s Banking Commission and that the funds deposited by customers were safe.
Fitch Ratings announced that it had downgraded all three financial institutions due to concerns over money laundering tied to drug trafficking, as alleged by U.S. Treasury officials.
S&P Ratings also announced that they had ended their contractual relationship with CIBanco and had removed them from their credit ratings, Milenio reported.
Sheinbaum has since claimed that her government has been working to ensure that the money that Mexican citizens deposited in those banks is safe; however, she added that people are free to withdraw their funds from there.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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