Sheinbaum denied a CNN report this week alleging CIA involvement in lethal operations on Mexican territory, escalating a public dispute over intelligence activity and media reporting that unfolded amid broader strains between Mexico and Washington.
In Wednesday comments, Sheinbaum rejected what CNN said about alleged CIA planning and support for a targeted assassination of a Sinaloa cartel figure on a highway outside Mexico City. She accused CNN of attempting to “hurt the government and the people of Mexico,” and later, when asked about the story, she called it “a fiction the size of the universe.”
CNN’s reporting, first published Tuesday, said the CIA facilitated the targeted assassination, according to the AP account. The report triggered criticism in Mexico and drew attention to the sensitivity of U.S. intelligence operations being portrayed as occurring inside Mexican territory.
The CIA pushed back through its spokesperson, Liz Lyons, who posted on X that the CNN report was “false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk.” In the AP report, the CIA also did not specify which parts of the CNN story it said were incorrect, but the rejection was framed as both misinformation and a safety concern.
CNN said the network had presented the CIA with details of the report before publication and that the CIA declined to comment. CNN also said it stands by its reporting, and a CNN spokesperson later addressed Sheinbaum’s denial by pointing to the CIA spokesperson’s statement on X. “After publication, CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons released a statement to CNN saying, ‘This is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk,’ without specifying what aspect of the reporting is false,” the spokesperson said.
The dispute also touched the New York Times, which the AP reported later said Mexican forces carried out the attack and that the CIA provided planning and support. After Sheinbaum was asked during her morning press briefing about the Times reporting, the paper stood by its account as well. Charlie Stadtlander, its executive director of media relations and communications, said in an emailed statement that the publication “remains confident in the accuracy of what we reported.”
The episode came as Sheinbaum faces criticism tied to how Mexico manages its relationship with the United States while renegotiating a free-trade agreement and amid threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to take action on cartels. Sheinbaum has emphasized Mexico’s sovereignty in her public messaging, a narrative that has faced questions in recent weeks as the two countries spar publicly over security-related claims.
MSI previously reported on a developing dispute after Sheinbaum demanded explanations following deaths involving U.S. embassy officials in Chihuahua as covered on April 22. In that earlier case, the AP reported that two CIA agents died in a car crash along with local Mexican investigators during a return from an anti-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua, with Sheinbaum saying she had no knowledge of the operation and Mexican and U.S. authorities contradicting each other for days.
The AP account also said that a week later, a New York court charged Sinaloa’s governor—described as a high-ranking member of Sheinbaum’s party and an ally of Andrés Manuel López Obrador—with drug trafficking and weapons offenses. The court filing accused the governor of aiding in the massive importation of illicit narcotics into the U.S., and the developments have fed a broader debate in Mexico over how much of the anti-cartel effort is being directed from or coordinated with Washington.
While the AP report noted that Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often attacked journalists in morning briefings and at times doxed critics, it said Sheinbaum has taken a more measured tone in the face of criticism.