Article Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-says-it-won-t-allow-officials-accused-corruption-be-n1248276
After decades of the US trying high-profile Mexican drug-trafficking and corruption cases, Mexico has said that it will no longer allow this. Though the exact implications of this statement aren’t clear, it is likely a result of the US dropping a high-profile drug-trafficking and money laundering case against former Mexican defense secretary Salvador Cienfuegos.
Lopez Obrador, the Mexican president, has expressed frustration that innocent Mexicans have been put on trial without any proof, and desires to try his own citizens under Mexican law. Obrador explains that this is an issue of national sovereignty, as it damages their reputation. Mexican officials said that the US didn’t share evidence against Cienfuegos, and arrested him without warning.
Mexico sees Cienfuegos’ release as a victory for its sovereignty and a step towards equal partnership between the United states and Mexico in a system that has historically seen Mexico’s court system as ineffective in their fight against drug trafficking.
This statement by the Mexican government might prove to be a monumental shift in US-Mexico relations. For the past several decades, it has been tradition for Mexico to extradite their most dangerous and influential criminals to the US for sentencing, as the Mexican court system has been seen as too corrupt to handle the trials fairly. Now, Mexico is taking the reigns and asserting that they are capable of handling their criminals on their own. Though United States officials haven’t commented yet, it can be assumed that this strengthening of Mexico’s sovereignty will greatly diminish the United State’s influence in the area.
On the other hand, because it is so early in the process, it’s entirely possible that Mexico meant this only for the Cienfuegos case but not for others in the future. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how relations between Mexico and the United States shift in the coming years in regard to how the two countries navigate the crime that takes place on their border.
Though this incident can clearly be connected to sovereignty, it can also be studied through the levels of analysis. On a global level, there is always the issue of conflict on borders and how it should be handled. On an interstate level, the Mexican-American border is seen as a hotspot for drugs and violence, so a lot of the cooperation between the two countries revolves around solving these issues. On a state level, the US has historically seen the need to assume a lot of responsibility in the affairs of Latin America, and Mexican’s government has historically been seen as corrupt. Lastly, Trump, Obrador, and Cienfuegos fall on the individual level, as their actions have directly played a role in Mexican-American relations.