Mexico’s president defends antidrug efforts after U.S. criticism

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico defended her government’s efforts to combat drug trafficking at a morning news conference on Thursday, after the U.S. State Department called Mexico’s border security policy unacceptable and the two countries issued a joint statement noting “significant challenges.” Sheinbaum presented data she said showed a 50 percent drop in U.S.

seizures of fentanyl at the border between 2024 and 2025, and attributed the decline to seizures being carried out inside Mexico. The U.S. Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs posted that “the United States made clear that incremental progress in facing border security challenges is unacceptable,” adding that “upcoming bilateral engagements with Mexico will require concrete, verifiable outcomes to dismantle narcoterrorist networks and deliver a real reduction in fentanyl trafficking to protect communities on both sides of the border.” The joint statement followed a phone call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Mexican counterpart.

Sheinbaum said the United States also needed to do more to fight distribution and money laundering on its side of the border, and to curb the flow of guns into Mexico. She displayed a photograph she said showed 21 long guns and 30 handguns seized from a vehicle that had crossed into Tijuana from the United States.

The comments came as threats of unilateral U.S.

Key Topics

World, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico, Fentanyl, U.s. State Department, Tijuana