A Mexican state governor and a Mexican state mayor step down after drug trafficking indictments in the United States

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party in the northwestern state of Sinaloa say they will temporarily step down from their posts after the United States accused them and eight other politicians and security officers of drug trafficking in an indictment that has rocked Mexico’s political establishment.

In a short video announcement at midnight on Friday, Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, the highest-ranking official named in the indictment, denied accusations that he protected the Sinaloa Cartel and helped it smuggle drugs into the United States in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.

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“My conscience is clear,” said Rocha, 76, a longtime ally of influential former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. “To my people and my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will.”

But he said he would take a temporary leave of absence from the position he has held for six years to defend himself against what he described as “false and malicious” allegations and to cooperate with the Mexican government’s investigation.

Juan de Dios Gamez Mendevil, mayor of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state mentioned in the indictment, said he would take a leave of absence and denied the accusations. In a special vote on Saturday, the state’s local congress appointed an interim governor, Yraldine Bonilla Valverde, a Rocha ally who previously served as state government minister.

In a special vote on Saturday, the state’s local congress appointed an interim governor, Yraldine Bonilla Valverde, a Rocha ally who previously served as state government minister.

Rocha and Jámez Mendivil enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution as governor and mayor. But by leaving their posts, even temporarily, officials lost their blanket protection from prosecution, Arturo Zaldivar, a former Mexican Supreme Court justice who now advises Sheinbaum, posted on X.

“They can be detained like anyone,” he wrote.

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Sheinbaum is struggling to balance the interests of her progressive Morena party with pressure from US President Donald Trump to intensify the war against the gangs.

Referring to her party’s anti-corruption platform, Sheinbaum said she would not defend anyone proven to have committed a crime.

But she has strongly defended Mexico’s sovereignty, vowing that if federal authorities uncover “irrefutable” evidence linking the 10 accused officials to cartel crimes, the defendants will be tried in Mexico, not the United States – a move that risks backlash from the US administration, which has threatened military action against the cartels on Mexican soil.

“We will never submit ourselves because this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people,” she said Friday.

Pending the investigation, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said it would not arrest Rocha or the other accused officials, as the United States had requested.

Rocha, a leading figure in the “hands up, not bullets” approach to organized crime that Lopez Obrador pioneered and Sheinbaum has since abandoned, insisted in the video that the indictment represents a political attack on Morena.

“I will not allow myself to be used to harm the movement to which I belong, the movement that has improved the lives of millions of Mexican men and women,” he said.

Rocha was born in the same town as notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo, and has found himself embroiled in similar scandals before. In 2024, his name was mentioned in a published letter written by a then-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was kidnapped by leaders of a rival faction and turned over to US law enforcement. The commander said in the letter that he was on his way to meet Rocha when he was kidnapped.

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Debre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.