MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said that she and the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin agreed Thursday to maintain bilateral cooperation rooted in mutual respect.
Mullin arrived in the Mexican capital for a two-day visit following tensions in recent weeks over the deaths of two CIA agents at Mexico’s northern border and U.S. drug trafficking indictments against 10 Mexican officials.
Sheinbaum’s administration, which took office in October 2024, has toed a fine line with the Trump administration as it has emphasized bilateral cooperation, while also maintaining Mexico’s sovereignty in the face of threats of U.S. military intervention.
After meeting with Mullin at the presidential palace, Sheinbaum shared a brief post on X saying that both nations will maintain cooperation based on mutual respect.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry emphasized respect for sovereignty and “coordination without subordination” as some of the key principles agreed upon for cooperation, in a statement issued after the meeting.
Mullin, who assumed the position in March after Kristi Noem’s departure, also met with Mexico’s Security Cabinet.
Earlier Thursday, Sheinbaum said that she would also speak with Mullin about the 15 Mexican migrants who have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers since 2025, which prompted diplomatic protests from her government. Sheinbaum has instructed consulates to make daily visits to the detention centers, and Mexico announced in March that it would bring the cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The foreign ministry in its Thursday statement emphasized the importance of cooperation on migration. It cited the successful reduction Mexican citizens crossing the border, which has reached a 50-year-low.
The Mexican president also ruled out discussing the cases of the 10 indicted officials, some of whom belong to the governing Morena party, during her meeting with Mullin.
In late April, the New York Attorney General’s office indicted Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha, Culiacan mayor Juan de Dios Gámez, and eight other active and retired officials on charges including drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms.
Rocha and Gámez temporarily stepped down from their posts to facilitate the investigation opened by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, while the former Sinaloa government officials, Gerardo Mérida and Enrique Díaz, surrendered to U.S. authorities last week.
Bilateral relations became strained after the deaths of two CIA agents on April 19, along with two officials from the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office, when the vehicle they were traveling in plunged into a ravine in the mountains between Chihuahua — which borders Texas — and the state of Sinaloa, where a clandestine synthetic drug lab had been dismantled.
The incident prompted a formal protest from the Sheinbaum administration to Washington that it hadn’t been informed of the presence of the two U.S. agents in Mexico, or of their activities in the opposition-governed state of Chihuahua.
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