AMLO threatened to restrict DEA operation in exchange for Cienfuegos, WP reports

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On Tuesday, November 17th, the governments of Mexico and the United States reported that the US will withdraw the charges against the general, so that he may be tried in Mexico; “There is a possibility that Cienfuegos will remain free, at least for a time,” says The Washington Post.

After it became known that the former Secretary of Defense of Mexico, Salvador Cienfuegos, will be repatriated to Mexico from the United States, the US media The Washington Post, published an article offering a little more information about it.

FILE – In this April 16, 2016 file photo, Mexico’s Defense Secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda salutes soldiers at the Number 1 military camp in Mexico City. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard wrote in his Twitter account Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau had informed him that Gen. Cienfuegos has been arrested in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Federal prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York attributed the change in the course of the case to “threats from the Mexican government to limit the role of the Drug Control Administration (DEA, for its acronym in English) in their territory. national, “as quoted an official familiar with the case. 

Also, a Mexican official confirmed the possibility of the DEA being excluded from the country, according to the Post.

“The decision to drop the charges against Cienfuegos is equivalent to a significant setback, even if only symbolic, for the efforts of the Department of Justice against drug trafficking in Mexico,” the Washington Post said in reference to the setback that would be after the negotiation held by the Mexican government with said US body.

In addition, the Post notes that the US Department of Justice has shared incriminating evidence with the Mexican prosecutors in the case; despite this, “there is the possibility that Cienfuegos will remain free, at least for a time,” he writes.

Continuing with the above, the Post maintains that this would be “a symbol of the Mexican government’s ability to play hard with the United States and win.” They also point out that the Mexican Foreign Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said that the former Defense Secretary would arrive “as a Mexican citizen” without facing criminal charges on national soil.

With information from The Washington Post