The Mexican government on 7 July 2026 publicly accused former United States ambassador Ken Salazar of lying when he denied any US agency role in the July 2024 capture of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. President Claudia Sheinbaum and Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez presented a detailed chronology of the operation, pointing to a recent FBI museum exhibit that displays the aircraft used to transport Zambada and attributes the mission to the bureau. The presentation marked a sharp escalation in a long-simmering diplomatic dispute over the circumstances of the arrest, which Mexican officials say was carried out on Mexican soil without prior notification or consent.

Viewed from Mexico City, the core grievance is one of sovereignty. Rodríguez stated that confirmed FBI participation without informing the Mexican government would violate the UN Charter, the Charter of the Organization of American States, the Mexican constitution, and national security law. Sheinbaum repeatedly asked “who lied?”, contrasting Salazar’s 2024 public assurance that “it was not our plane, nor our pilot, nor our people” with the FBI’s own attribution of the operation. The president also questioned whether US agencies had struck agreements with the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa cartel, noting that the same day Zambada was flown to the US, Ovidio Guzmán López—a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán—received a change in his legal status without Mexico being informed. “We never make deals with any member of organized crime,” Sheinbaum said, drawing a contrast with what she implied was US practice.

In Washington, no immediate official response was issued to the Mexican allegations. The FBI’s El Paso field office had earlier described the aircraft as exemplifying the bureau’s priorities in combating violent crime, but did not detail the extent of its agents’ role on the ground in Mexico. The diplomatic friction unfolds against a backdrop of heightened US pressure under the Trump administration, which has designated Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations and indicted Sinaloa’s governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, on drug charges. Mexican officials have also been investigating the presence of CIA agents in a separate anti-narcotics operation in Chihuahua that ended in the agents’ deaths, further straining bilateral security cooperation.

The Mexican government has formally requested that the FBI clarify its role and has asked the attorney general’s office to determine whether any crime was committed. Sheinbaum noted that while Salazar enjoys diplomatic immunity, the matter raises questions about the veracity of official communications between the two countries. The dossier remains open: Mexico awaits a US response, and the publication of Salazar’s memoir, scheduled for late July 2026, is expected to add further detail to a dispute that has already contributed to a surge in cartel violence in Sinaloa, where homicides rose 232 percent in the months following Zambada’s removal.