By Diego Oré
MEXICO CITY, May 6 (Reuters) – A U.S. indictment announced last week accusing several Mexican politicians, including the governor of Sinaloa, of having drug cartel ties is triggering a rift in the ruling Morena party as factions jostle over how to respond, posing a significant challenge for President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Publicly, Sheinbaum has denounced U.S. interference and said the evidence Mexico has seen so far is not sufficient to arrest and extradite the 10 current and former Mexican officials accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of colluding with the Sinaloa Cartel to traffic drugs into the United States.
But behind the scenes, a heated dispute has broken out along pre-existing fault lines within the ruling party, three senior Morena officials told Reuters. The dispute has centered on the future of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha, an influential Morena politician who said last Friday he would step down temporarily as a local investigation proceeds. He denies any wrongdoing.
Rocha is the first high-profile sitting politician to be accused by the United States of ties to drug trafficking. U.S. prosecutors have accused Mexican officials of corruption before, but only after they have left office.
The powerful faction in Morena that is loyal to former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the movement’s founder and de facto leader, has vehemently opposed any action that could be regarded as giving in to U.S. pressure, the sources said.
That faction is led by Supreme Court Justice Lenia Batres and her brother Martí, who is in charge of Mexico’s public-sector social security agency ISSSTE, as well as Morena congressional leaders Ignacio Mier and Ricardo Monreal. The group was against Rocha stepping down, believing he should be allowed to continue in his post until allegations of cartel ties were proven in Mexico – an uncertain process that could take years to play out. They also regard any consideration of U.S. extradition as a betrayal of Mexican sovereignty. Rocha is a longtime ally of López Obrador.
On the other side of the dispute is a growing and influential group of younger leaders, headed by the party’s new chief Ariadna Montiel, who see the Rocha indictment as an opportunity to finally combat corruption within the ranks of the ruling party. That faction is more naturally aligned with Sheinbaum although the leader remains indebted to her predecessor and mentor whose overwhelming popularity secured her electoral victory.
Neither Morena nor the presidency responded to requests for comment.
The confrontation marks a potential crossroads for Morena, according to officials and political analysts. Potentially at stake, they say, is the ruling party’s super majority in Congress formed through a coalition with the Labor Party and the Green Party. Any sense of an internal split could also hurt Morena at the polls.
“Behind closed doors, the fractures within the party are evident,” said a senior Morena leader aligned with López Obrador. “It’s clear that whatever happens with Rocha will have an impact on the party’s future.”
MORENA ELECTORAL JUGGERNAUT
Over the past eight years, Morena has become Mexico’s dominant party. Together with its allies, it currently governs 75% of the states, holds a large majority in both congressional houses, and controls nearly half of the country’s 2,400 municipalities.
But despite of López Obrador winning a landslide in 2018 on the promise of ending corruption, impunity and greed, his administration was dogged by accusations of a cozy relationship with the country’s violent drug cartels.
For Sheinbaum there are no easy choices.
On the one hand, a public sense that she has betrayed Lopez Obrador by doing the bidding of the United States could harm Morena as a political force. But Mexicans are also increasingly angry about corruption and alleged collusion between politicians and organized crime, especially in places devastated by cartel violence like Sinaloa. If Sheinbaum is seen to be turning a blind eye or sweeping serious accusations under the carpet, it could severely damage her credibility.
“It’s an uncomfortable position,” said Antonio Ocaranza, a consultant and former spokesman for former President Ernesto Zedillo, who governed Mexico from 1994 to 2000.
“Pleasing the United States comes at a high political cost. Even if she doesn’t agree to an extradition, Sheinbaum will face greater pressure to demonstrate that she is tackling corruption within her government, and the pipeline of figures similarly exposed to U.S. investigations is extensive,” he said.
(Reporting by Diego Oré; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Alistair Bell)
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