U.S. Personnel Who Died in Mexico Were Working For the CIA, Sources Say |
Special Investigations
Press Freedom Defense Fund
U.S. Personnel Who Died in Mexico Were Working For the CIA, Sources Say
Two Americans killed in Mexico, previously identified only as “staff from the United States Embassy,” participated in a raid on a drug lab.
Two U.S. officials who died in Mexico on Sunday worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, two sources told The Intercept. They are among the first known fatalities of President Donald Trump’s expanding drug war in Latin America.
The American personnel died in a vehicular crash in the mountains of the Sierra de Chihuahua following a drug raid, alongside two Mexican officials, including Román Oseguera Cervantes, the director of the Chihuahua State Investigation Agency.
The sources said the Americans died after a raid on a synthetic drug lab.
The sources said the Americans died after a raid on a synthetic drug lab.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson announced the deaths of the Americans on Sunday, referring to them in a post on X as “two members of staff from the United States Embassy.”
The State Department refused requests for additional information on the Americans’ activities or the agencies that employed them. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said during a Monday press conference that she was unaware of “any direct work between Chihuahua state and personnel from the U.S. embassy.”
Two U.S. government officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity said the CIA has been running covert operations in Mexico, working alongside vetted Mexican state-level police forces and other government agencies. The sources said the Americans died after a raid on a synthetic drug lab.
“You may note that CIA declined to comment,” a CIA spokesperson told The Intercept by email in response to questions about the deaths.
Mexican authorities told the press that the Americans were not involved in the raid after earlier stating they died following the operation against the labs.
Western Hemisphere Front
Trump has turned the Western Hemisphere into a war zone, as part of what he and others have called the “Donroe Doctrine.” This bastardization of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine — which Trump has turned into a unilateral license to militarily meddle in the U.S.’s backyard — has led to strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean; an attack on Venezuela and the abduction of its president; and increased military operations elsewhere in Latin America.
Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command, recently referenced the “perceived increase of U.S. support to counter-cartel operations in Mexico” in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations. He said his elite troops “remain postured to provide… support to Mexican military and security forces to dismantle narco-terrorist organizations.”
In a little-noticed move in January, U.S. Northern Command – on Trump’s order – established Joint Interagency Task Force – Counter Cartel, or JIATF-CC, to coordinate U.S. government intelligence “to identify, disrupt, and dismantle cartel networks.” Among other things, the task force was........