Mexico Demands Proof After U.S. Treasury Sanctions Cartel Businesses Funding Mexican Political Campaigns

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum demanded that the U.S. government show proof after the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned multiple cartel businesses that allegedly funded political campaigns in Mexico.

During one of her morning news conferences this week, Sheinbaum lashed out at the U.S. Department of the Treasury for jumping the gun, claiming that Mexico’s Financial Crimes Unit (UIF) was already investigating those businesses.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury announced that it had sanctioned two Mexican nationals and nine of their businesses in Mexico that had been linked to the smuggling and laundering of stolen fuel on behalf of Cartel Jalisco New Generation. As part of the crackdown, the U.S. Treasury’s financial crimes group FINCEN also issued an alert about the methodology and the red flags over the smuggling and laundering of stolen fuel — a practice that has become one of the largest money makers for drug cartels outside of drug trafficking.

The issue that triggered Sheinbaum was a paragraph in the U.S. Treasury statement that read, “In Mexico, the cartels use their illicit profits from the black market fuel sales to make cash payments to Mexican political campaigns and media outlets to help elect corrupt Mexican politicians willing to assist the cartels control key administrative positions in the government, which facilitates fuel smuggling operations and access to state contracts to launder the illicit profits from these schemes and other criminal activities.”

According to Sheinbaum, she was blindsided by the claim that cartels were funding political campaigns.

“We were never informed of that,” she said, referring to the fact that the U.S. Treasury’s FINCEN had worked in the case with her UIF. “Besides, what proof do they have? Because it’s the same, I mean, they claim something is happening without having any proof.”